Former All Blacks head coach Ian Foster does not agree with Sir Steve Hansen’s claim that New Zealand were “robbed” of the Rugby World Cup in 2023.
After a tough run of results in 2021, Foster turned things around with the All Blacks and led the side to the final in Paris, where they met their old foe.
However, a red card to Sam Cane in the 29th minute and missed shots at goal from Richie Mo’unga and Jordie Barrett meant that they fell short to South Africa, who emerged 12-11 victors to win the tournament for a record fourth time.
The match was littered with controversy, with Springboks skipper Siya Kolisi yellow carded for a high tackle while Mo’unga had a try chalked off by the TMO after a knock-on by Ardie Savea in the build-up.
“I go back to it with a lot of pride”
This led 2015 World Cup-winning All Blacks boss Hansen to state that New Zealand were “robbed” in the final by the officials.
“This is a team that should have won the World Cup, they were robbed of the World Cup as far as I’m concerned with some poor decisions that were out of their control which cost them a World Cup,” Hansen said.
However, his All Blacks successor, Foster, who he has reunited with at Japanese club Toyota Verblitz does not agree as he looks back on the final with pride.
“I go back to it with a lot of pride with where the team got to and to get to that final on the big stage and get so close I was actually so proud with that but also incredibly disappointed that we didn’t cross the line,” Foster told DSPN with Martin Devlin.
“I like to focus more on things that we could control, things that maybe we could have done a little bit better and so I think you kid yourself that we were robbed you end up becoming a little bit cynical.”
Despite the controversial calls, the former All Blacks boss was not willing to pin the blame on the officials but instead looked within for the reasoning for the defeat.
“You end up blaming other people for it so for me, we did what we had to do but we weren’t quite good enough to get the result,” he continued.
“And that’s the game and that’s probably what World Cup finals are about – they’re about tension and drama and you’d have to say I delivered that pretty well.”
Foster has moved on
Following the final, Foster took a break from coaching, admitting that he rejected the advances of international teams as he was not yet ready to coach against New Zealand.
However, he has returned to professional coaching linking up with Hansen again, this time in Japan Rugby League One with Toyota Verblitz. The pair worked together between 2012 and 2019 before Foster took over as the All Blacks boss from Hansen after the World Cup in Japan.
It was a rocky four years for Foster with New Zealand Rugby coming close to sacking him in 2022 after their series loss to Ireland. In fact, it was reported that the union held talks with Scott Robertson to take over as head coach but that did not occur after a revolt from the players.
“The key thing is that I’ve moved on,” Foster said when asked if how he was treated still lingers with him.
“It’s really important not to let things that you can’t control, control you. There were things that happened and people acted in ways that I disagreed with. People were pretty clear that I did disagree with them and that’s all you could really do.
“You just have to say your peace and then go and do what you need to do and I was pretty determined to not let other people’s decisions change the person that I was.
“Have I moved on? Yes, I have. Have I forgotten everything? No, I haven’t but that’s probably for another day.”
