New Zealand Rugby (NZR) chief executive Mark Robinson has hit out at claims by Ian Foster which he made in his autobiography regarding the decision to end his tenure as All Blacks head coach.
In March 2023, NZR announced that Foster’s four-year reign as All Blacks head coach would come to an end after the Rugby World Cup in France later that year with Scott Robertson replacing him.
Foster‘s coaching tenure was a turbulent one as the All Blacks‘ form was indifferent and he came close to being fired in 2022 before a victory over the Springboks in Johannesburg saved his job.
Despite learning that he would be replaced by Robertson several months in advance, Foster still guided the All Blacks to a World Cup final in France which they eventually lost by the narrowest of margins to the Boks.
Foster’s book, Leading Under Pressure, was released earlier this year and in it he revealed that the way his employment situation was handled led to him losing trust in Robinson.
Speaking from Chicago, where the All Blacks will face Ireland in a Test on Saturday, Robinson told RNZ that “things that are being said and written publicly just aren’t true” in reference to Foster’s autobiography.
‘There’s a range of things that are just not true’
“I haven’t read Ian’s book, but what’s been sent back to me anecdotally is there’s a range of things that are just not true,” said Robinson, who will step down from his position at NZR at the end of this year.
Ahead of the 2023 World Cup, Robinson made public comments about Robertson’s potential and the All Blacks’ form which led to Foster describing their relationship as ‘irrevocably broken’.
However, Robinson believes the decision to replace Foster with Robertson was the right one.
“At the end of the day, we need these key decisions around the coaching environment, which were the right decisions at the right time, to give the team the best possible opportunity to win the World Cup,” he said.
“And then we made a call that we believed we needed, (which was) a change for the medium to longer term.”
Robinson said that due to stability of previous All Blacks coaching staffs and NZR’s general approach of not interfering would have made the situation confronting to New Zealand rugby fans.
He remains unapologetic though about what transpired.
‘Appropriate call’ made
“We made the appropriate call, which is common practice in a lot of other countries and a lot of other sports, for that matter,” added Robinson.
“It was new to New Zealand, but it doesn’t make it wrong. It was just different to the past. We had all the information from the players, feedback from the reviews, from what we were saying right through that period of time, which clearly supported the basis for those decisions.”
Robinson also stuck to NZR’s version of events.
“It’s a shame that people want to reflect on that and create revisionist views on history,” he said.
“I’m really proud of the fact that I want to go beyond what I’m sort of saying now that we’ve held the high ground on this… because it would have been very easy for us to get into to-ing and fro-ing on this.
“But that wouldn’t have served anyone, right? We were focused on what’s right for the team.”