Over a coaching career with the All Blacks that spanned more than 12 years, former head coach Ian Foster had more difficult decisions to make than most.
The former All Black head coach and current Toyota Verblitz assistant has just released his book, called “Leading Under Pressure”, written by Foster, but includes stories from current players and management about the 2023 World Cup in France.
Throughout his tenure at the helm of the All Blacks, Foster felt like the players deserved honest conversations regarding selections, and decided to make sure every player’s feelings and thoughts were listened to, and heard by the coaching staff.
Foster recalls one tough conversation with former All Black Dane Coles, who earned 90 Test caps for New Zealand over more than a decade in the national setup.
Foster explains the decision to leave Coles out of the 23 for the World Cup final against the Springboks as “the hardest I’ve ever done”.
“Obviously the bigger the game, the bigger the emotion, and the one that sticks in my mind has been the hardest I’ve ever done, was getting Dane Coles down to tell him that he wasn’t going to be in the 23 and for the final,” Foster told the Between Two Beers Podcast in a recent podcast episode promoting his new book.
“Probably in my mind, one of the greatest All Blacks, and he was massive for us and I remember tearing up and crying, and I could hardly even say it.
“And Coles, he basically helped me through it, he just said, It’s okay, I understand, I was doing the job and, you know, that’s the measure of him, but there’s a lot of emotion.”
When asked about the misconception that these decisions made by coaches are just black-and-white business decisions, Foster explains that the players have emotions and reasons to represent their country on the biggest stage.
“Absolutely, you know, particularly when you think about World Cups and you think about players families will spend a life savings to come over and watch little Johnny play in the World Cup, and with the expectations they might see him play, and then suddenly he’s not playing,” Foster told Between Two Beers.
“So the player has not only a massive desire to play on the part for the team, but they’ve also got people around them that they want to keep happy as well.
“So it involves a whole lot of things, but it sounds complicated, but if you think about it, at the heart of it’s pretty simple that players should expect transparency and some honesty, and they won’t always get the answers they want, you don’t always agree, but at least say, Okay, well, I’ll say what I need to say.”
