All Blacks legend Sam Whitelock has revealed his distaste at a player plea he was part of to save Ian Foster’s job as coach in 2022.
Whitelock has written about the saga that nearly saw Foster sacked and his club coach Scott Robertson installed as coach in his autobiography, Samuel Whitelock: View from the Second Row.
A player delegation to NZR chief Mark Robinson was able to help save Foster’s job although there was an assistant coach shakeup, including the arrival of now Wallabies coach Joe Schmidt.
Whitelock said the All Blacks, who went on to make the final of the 2023 World Cup under Foster, “were not being coached well enough.”
“We needed to change. I recognised that after the northern tour at the end of 2021, when we were well beaten by France and Ireland and, in my opinion, had prepared too many excuses for our under-performance.
“The balance of the coaching group wasn’t right. They all had strengths, but we didn’t have enough strengths across the board. There were holes in the group.
“Just as I believe the All Blacks is no place to select development players, it should also be reserved for the best of the best coaches, but the appointment process doesn’t really allow for that because you’re forced to assemble a team beforehand.
“In fact, the best coaching team might be a mix of candidates from the various groups put forward. Fozzie didn’t have enough international experience and skills in his team.”
After losses to Ireland and Argentina at home in mid 2022, Foster took his team to South Africa with knives out.
They managed to win and Whitelock was part of a leadership group intervention with Robinson.
“It’s no great secret that our win over South Africa at Johannesburg in August 2022 saved Foster’s job. We were coming off five losses in six Tests, including that unprecedented home-series loss to Ireland,” Whitelock wrote.
“Long story short, there was a group of players that went to New Zealand Rugby chief executive Mark Robinson’s room following the Test to lobby strongly for Fozzie to remain in the role.
“As part of the leadership group I was among them, but I can honestly say I was blindsided by the idea. Others in the group were really keen on going, while some members of the squad didn’t even have a clue it was happening.
“Was it the right thing to do? Good question. It’s a sticking point for me because, as I’ve said, it is not our job as players to back or sack the coach.
(Photo by Hannah Peters/Getty Images)
“If you flip that scenario on its head and we had a group of players approaching the CEO to have a popular coach sacked, how do you think that would be received by the public?
“What we had was a group of emotional people, in an emotional situation, influencing decisions that should not be based on emotion.
“To me, what happened that night is not what good leadership looks like. As a player, the first thing you have to be loyal to is the team, the jersey, the fern, whatever word you want to use.”
Whitelock confirmed that NZR had plans in place for post-Foster before the backflip.
“The world’s worst-kept secret was that Razor was basically given the word by NZR leadership to start assembling his coaching team around that time. It’s been widely reported, so I’m not talking out of school,” Whitelock wrote.
“It’s true that I felt stuck in the middle. I have relationships with Razor and Fozzie that are built on trust, and while they’re different relationships, I value them both.
“I know people find it frustrating that I am hazy on this subject but it is not indifference – it is more that I have always needed to look at it dispassionately.
“I knew that there was a good chance that if I planted my flag on one or the other’s mast and the other person got the job, then I would be compromised.
“I didn’t allow myself to have a strong opinion one way or the other as to whether Team Robertson should be brought in or Team Foster should be retained and I can’t suddenly retroactively form one for the sake of a headline.”