Former All Blacks back-rower Murray Mexted has slammed New Zealand Rugby for their treatment of Ian Foster after reading the ex-head coach’s book.
The All Blacks are already on their second coach since Foster led the team to the Rugby World Cup final in France, with Dave Rennie taking over from Scott Robertson this year.
New Zealand Rugby’s decision
However, after reading Foster’s book Leading Under Pressure, Mexted has taken aim at NZ Rugby over their lack of support for the coach as they plotted to replace him with Robertson in 2022 before the players stepped in.
The following year, the union confirmed that Robertson would be taking over from Foster following the World Cup, a decision that Mexted has blasted as ‘lunacy’.
“I can’t believe the naivety of the people who made that decision,” he said on DSPN podcast with Martin Devlin.
“It was just incredible that they thought they could name a new coach before the Rugby World Cup – that is just lunacy.
“And having been in the team, I remember many occasions where teams were announced, and there were guys that were pretty bloody upset that weren’t in the team, which is fair enough, but the key is to keep everybody involved, and that’s probably one of the things that Razor was really good at, but Ian Foster was outstanding.”
The decision to announce that Robertson would be taking over from Foster before the global showpiece in 2023 was a clear indication that the latter didn’t have the backing of the board.
Ian Foster ‘won’t coach in New Zealand again’ after the actions of NZR
Rassie Erasmus contrast
After reading the details of how events transpired from Foster’s point of view, Mexted was left impressed by how the coach conducted himself but added that those kinds of pressures are part and parcel of the position.
He believes that Springboks boss Rassie Erasmus had similar hurdles when he returned to South Africa but he has worked hard to get the support of SA Rugby and now does ‘whatever he wants’.
“After reading it, I thought, well good on you. You did so well in the Rugby World Cup despite all the things that happened,” he continued.
“I mean, getting within one point of drawing the World Cup final was a fantastic performance when you look at the background.
“When I say things like that, you’ve also got to acknowledge and appreciate that’s the way it is at the top sometimes but I do think that the body of support at the NZR level wasn’t sufficient at the time.
“You can look at Rassie Erasmus and how about the lack of support from the people who are running South African Rugby. He had to fight tooth and nail to be able to do some of the things he’s done and he’s won them all over now.
“It took him some time, but he’s won them all over and he’s doing whatever he wants and he’s doing it well, you know, and he’s powerful.
“It’s always a battle to get to the stage where you can do the things you want to do be that you need to do to achieve and be successful.”