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All Blacks boss Ian Foster has spoken out on center Rieko Ioane’s costly mistake in his riveting Bledisloe Test against the Wallabies in Wellington on Sunday.
The gripping showdown ended in a 16-16 draw, but it could have been an entirely different story had Ioane not killed what should have been a regulation finish on the test line just before halftime.
The 23-year-old All Blacks center looked destined to score a counter-attack try on the edge of halftime after being delivered 20 yards from the Wallabies’ line with no defenders in sight, but was unable to ground the ball as he dove with one hand.
Highlights: All Blacks vs Wallabies
Subsequently, New Zealand entered the break leading by just five, rather than doubling their lead.
“It would have been useful,” Foster admitted in his post-game press conference.
“He’s pretty frustrated with himself, but that’s one of those little lessons players have to go through and I thought he had a reasonably strong game on top of that.
“That’s why they call it a test match, you have to take those little moments and when you get a little sloppy in those moments, it can come back and bite you.”
Controversial moments in the Bledisloe thriller
“We had a chance to win the game in the last 10 minutes and we weren’t good enough to execute it. You don’t worry about errors in test matches, there were many errors before that and there were many errors after.
‘It certainly would have been good, but it’s not the reason we drew. You make a mistake, you move on. He’s a confident young man, but he has to learn from that little thing. ‘
Photo: Getty Images
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