Tri Nations rugby: All Blacks coach Ian Foster implores players not to be swayed by opposition taunts

All Blacks coach Ian Foster has asked his team to implement a “smile and walk away” approach to dealing with taunting from the opposition.

In their two most recent events, back-to-back defeats against Australia and Argentina, the All Blacks were disappointed in their discipline. They delivered 26 penalties between the two games combined, and several of them were avoidable.

Particularly in the game against Argentina, the All Blacks committed a series of penalties for reacting to their opposition.

Speaking with Martin Devlin of Newstalk ZB, Foster said that while the team had been working on his physique, it wasn’t smart to get carried away by pesky opposition.

“When we tried to get caught, they penalized us,” Foster said. “Let’s face it, an opposition player hitting you over the head to provoke you isn’t a nuisance, right? That’s just their tactic; just smile and go.

“Players are getting frustrated with some of the actions that people are getting away with, so now we’re back to the old days where the only player the referees see is the one retaliating and I’m not a big fan of that because the people who are doing the initial things are getting away with it.

“Frankly, we have to get better at dealing with it. It’s not smart to retaliate.”

While there has been much talk of Argentina’s physical and sometimes confrontational style of play, Foster noted that they offered much more than that on the field.

“They are a very, very good rugby team. They have some players that we as a country don’t know much about, but they are proving to be an outstanding rugby team, well trained and very disciplined. Defensively, very aggressive and [the draw with the Wallabies] it proved it was not a one-shot wonder. “

After beating the All Blacks for the first time in 30 attempts a week ago, Argentina played a 15-15 no-attempt draw against the Wallabies in Newcastle on Saturday night.

With just 37 percent of possession and 30 percent of the game played out of their own field, the Pumas stayed strong and took advantage of their opportunities to score points when they were available: for the second week in a row, Nicolás’ first five eighths. Sánchez scored all their points.

The Pumas and the All Blacks meet again next weekend, a match the All Blacks must win to have a chance to win the Tri Nations.

“It couldn’t be better written for us when we have a team that hurts us, we respect them and we know we have to match fire with fire against them.”