All Blacks: Ian Foster hints at giving more younger players a chance

David Skippers

After Fletcher Newell, Ethan de Groot and Samisoni Taukei’aho shone in Saturday’s victory against the Springboks in Johannesburg, All Blacks head coach Ian Foster has hinted that he could continue using more of his younger players.

The inexperienced trio’s impressive performances in that encounter has led to questions about why they were not used sparingly in last month’s lost series against Ireland, but Foster gave an indication that he will be giving chances to more newbies soon.

“It’s easy to look at selection in hindsight,” he told Stuff.

“Some of the decisions we made in July were based on niggles and injuries, and you get a lot of players in a different state when they come in post Super Rugby.

Struggled for fluency in July

“It’s always been like that. We’ve always struggled to get a lot of fluency in the July series.

“We had a couple of athletes – I’ll use Ethan [de Groot], I’m sure he doesn’t mind – we felt he wasn’t in the shape he needed to be in, so we put programs around players like that.

“So, when they come back in and play well…I’m actually really satisfied with the decisions we made in that space.

“We’ve now got good competition, we’ve got some younger players who’ve put their hand up and there might be a few more coming in.

“We need to make sure this team has the energy and drive it needs to go and win a World Cup.”

Those remarks will signal that the All Blacks are busy with a process of reinvention and the influence of new attack coach Joe Schmidt is already coming through.

Initially, Schmidt was brought in as a selector/analyst to challenge Foster’s thinking around selection, and his ability to do just that will become more evident now that he is more involved in training sessions.

There are numerous younger players who will come into consideration, with Crusaders back-row Cullen Grace an obvious contender, but Schmidt’s arrival may bring several other new contenders into play.

Amongst those are Otago centre Thomas Umaga-Jensen, who has continued with his impressive Highlanders form into the NPC, with his attacking play and ability to win turnovers threat on defence proving to be real strengths of his game.

The chances for new players could come during the Rugby Championship if injuries occur, or when the All Blacks go on their end-of-season tour, which kicks off with a Test against Japan in Tokyo on October 29.

In the meantime, Foster is just relieved the focus will soon return to what happens on the playing field, as the All Blacks prepare for their Test against Argentina in Christchurch on August 27.

Argentina next up for All Blacks

“I can’t wait,” he added. “I’ve got Joe and ‘Stormy’ [Scott McLeod] and ‘Straws’ [Andrew Strawbridge] coming around tomorrow and we’re going to start talking about the attack side of the game and some of the defence stuff.

“It’s going to be nice getting back into rugby. It’s been an emotive few days. But how good is that? Through all of this we’ve seen a team respond and I think get excited about the direction we’re going in.

“Argentina has done us a favour by beating Aussie so if we do start talking about rugby soon it’s going to be awesome, because we’ve got a Rugby Championship that’s pretty even at the moment and we’ve got a big game.”

READ MORE: Opinion: New Zealand Rugby drop the ball again with Ian Foster ‘World Cup’ backing