Rugby: All Blacks coach Ian Foster on getting the rotation back and reports being ‘wrong’

Ian Foster talks about the All Blacks team rotation, player well-being, the Miter 10 Cup and reports that the media has got it wrong.

Large-scale rotation will be back in vogue for the Rugby Championship with All Blacks coach Ian Foster confirming plans to bring an expanded team to Australia, where he will cut and change his starting team on a weekly basis to counter short changes. .

Foster is set to add 10 or 11 players to his original 35-man squad in the coming weeks after Australia secured the rights to host the Rugby Championship.

While the original equipment will be used for the first two Bledisloe Cup games in New Zealand next month, additional coverage is needed in Australia due to the complexities involved in replacing injured players when two weeks of quarantine is required.

The Rugby Championship will be held in a condensed window, and the tournament will begin on November 7 and end on the first weekend of December to prevent the All Blacks, Springboks and Pumas from having to be quarantined until Christmas upon their return. to home.

“From a player wellness setup, I don’t think we can delay the appointment of the additional players too close to the game because people are going to need the time to organize for that nine-week period,” Foster said. “We’re going to let the next week or two go by, but we’ll name those players in plenty of time to get their personal things in order and come out with a lot of energy.”

Foster admitted that managing an increased team and changing combinations each week will create headaches, but it is also an opportunity to increase depth.

“They are going to be important, but not insurmountable. We have a leadership group and an experienced management – these are challenges that we have to face one at a time and not be overwhelmed by them.

“We’re going to have to rethink how we do some things like All Black. Some traditional things may have to change. We have a mantra that everyone prepares to play every event. You can’t do that with 45 or 46 players.

“We will have to rotate, bring that word. Obviously we are going to have to switch players on and off in significant ways. When you have four or five days between some tests, you would like to think the four accessories that I wear in a test will not be the four accessories that use in the next test. “

The spinoffs from the Australia-based Rugby Championship, and the All Blacks bringing additional players there, will take away the Miter 10 Cup competition from their top-tier talent.

All of the Blacks will be performing at their respective syndicates again this weekend, and people not needed for the Bledisloe tryouts will again leak, but that will come to an end once the team leaves the shores of New Zealand.

“I don’t necessarily agree that we’re going to decimate it. We were always going to take 35 players and the competition usually never has those players in it. Is it going to change the nature of it? Of course it is. That’s what it is. It happens when the international match is played at the same time as the Miter 10 Cup.

“If we are talking about the Bledisloe Cup dates now [October 10/11 and 17/18] I would say that the general availability of All Blacks for the Miter Cup 10 from the third round onwards will disappear, but there will still be some individual players that will come back and play. “

Foster is confident that he will bring a largely complete squad to Australia, despite concerns raised about the possibility of some players retiring for family reasons. She pointed to a Radio New Zealand report that suggested new or future parents Beauden Barrett, Richie Mo’unga, TJ Perenara and Sevu Reece had opted out of the tournament.

“The way it was reported was not correct. Are the players talking about the issues? Yes they are. We are like everyone else, we are learning things as we go along. We now know that we have a nine week period in Australia that involves that we come out of quarantine on December 19.

“Now we have more information, we are talking to the players one by one and evaluating their situations. Each player is going to be a little different, but I have not heard from any player that they will not come. What I” Some players have told me that they have some questions. That is something completely different and purely natural.

“It is tremendously complicated, but there is also the reality of being a professional athlete. It is balancing the family side. Last year we went to the World Cup for seven weeks. This year we have to go to Australia and play a Rugby Championship for seven. weeks, then you have two weeks in quarantine at the end.

“We all know that it is not ideal and that we live in an imperfect world, but they are the cards that we have been dealt.”

The 35-man All Blacks team: another 10-11 players to be added
Asafo Aumua, Beauden Barrett, Jordie Barrett, George Bridge, Sam Cane, Caleb Clarke, Dane Coles, Braydon Ennor, Shannon Frizell, Jack Goodhue, Cullen Grace, Alex Hodgman, Akira John, Rieko John, Will Jordan, Nepo Laulala, Anton Lienert -Brown, Tyrel Lomax, Damian McKenzie, Joe Moody, Richie Mo’unga, Dalton Papalii, TJ Perenara, Sevu Reece, Ardie Savea, Aaron Smith, Hoskins Sotutu, Quinten Strange, Codie Taylor, Karl Tu’inukuafe, Patrick Tuipulotu, Ofa Tuungafasi, Tupou Vaa’i, Brad Weber, Sam Whitelock