‘All Blacks provoked by Wallabies’ – Ian Foster

All Blacks head coach Ian Foster believes that his side failed to deal with the Wallabies’ niggle during the 24-22 defeat in Brisbane on Saturday.

New Zealand struggled with their discipline as they saw Ofa Tuungafasi sent off and Scott Barrett yellow carded, handing the initiative to Australia.

They infringed regularly in their own half, which allowed Reece Hodge to kick four penalties and help the hosts to an important victory.

It was a fractious game and Foster felt that the players needed to be ‘smarter’ after being ‘provoked’ by the Australians.

Lacked discipline

“In the second half we weren’t as disciplined as we needed to be,” he told reporters.

“We were being pushed in the areas and provoked in the areas, and again that’s a tactic that teams use against us, and good on them. We’ve got to be better than that and smarter than that.

“We gave away some kickable penalties. And then that yellow was sort of on top of that and probably just reflected a little bit of frustration when there didn’t need to be any frustration.”

The Wallabies also had their issues with discipline as they saw Lachie Swinton receive a red card, but the All Blacks particularly struggled in that area.

Some criticised the punishments handed out by referee Nic Berry, but Foster says that they are sometimes necessary for the game to flow.

“It was a game played on the edge. Everyone could see that. There was a lot of intention, a lot of physicality from both teams,” Foster said. “And some of that bordered on margins that makes people open for punishment.

“Quite frankly, that sort of reminded us a little bit of the first Test in Wellington. And that’s why, when people start talking about ‘you don’t need cards’ and all that, I get that argument to one extent.

“But the flipside of it is it’s a very physical game, and if we don’t have clear boundaries, it becomes really hard for everyone to play the skilful game they need to.”