Former All Blacks head coach Ian Foster and NZ Rugby CEO Mark Robinson. Photo: PHOTOSPORT
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Outgoing NZ Rugby (NZR) CEO Mark Robinson has revealed ongoing frustration at the Ian Foster coaching saga, even though the former All Black coach left the team almost two years ago. Robinson said in Chicago this week that "things that are being said and written publicly just aren't true", referring to Foster's autobiography that was released earlier this year.
"I haven't read Ian's book, but what's been group sent back to me anecdotally, is there's a range of things that are just not true," said Robinson.
NZR made the move to announce Scott Robertson as Foster's replacement in March 2023, before an All Black season that would eventually see them come with a kick of winning the World Cup. That came after a tumultuous four years for Foster, whose All Black side experienced a range of memorable wins alongside bitter losses.
Foster revealed in the book, Leading Under Pressure, that he lost trust in Robinson over how the employment situation was handled. Robinson made public comments about Robertson's potential and the All Blacks' performance before the 2023 Rugby World Cup, leading Foster to describe their relationship as 'irrevocably broken'.
Scott Robertson, Ian Foster. Photo: PHOTOSPORT
"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," said Robinson
"And then we made a call that we believed we needed, (which was) a change for the medium to longer term."
Robinson said that the relative historical stability of the All Black coaching staff and NZR's general hands-off approach would have made the situation confronting to New Zealand rugby fans. However, he was unapologetic about what transpired.
Ian Foster, former head coach of the All Blacks. Photo: Hannah Peters
"We made the appropriate call, which is common practice in a lot of other countries and a lot of other sports, for that matter. 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 was firm on his and NZR's version of events.
"It's a shame that people want to reflect on that and create revisionist views on history. 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."
This will be one of the last public statements from Robinson as NZR CEO, as he prepares to step down at the end of this season. His own tenure can be described in much the same way as Foster's, dealing with challenges such as Covid, introducing private equity to NZR's funding model and a long, drawn-out governance saga. That was contrasted by the highly successful hosting of the Women's World Cup, a massive increase in overall sponsorship revenue and the reintroduction of full All Black tours to South Africa.
Robinson acknowledged that the Foster/Robertson coaching drama certainly fell into the challenge category, though.
"It's hard when you're the establishment to not necessarily want to snipe back or create things, but you've just got to have the ability to take the high ground on this stuff. "
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