Rugby: No dead rubber for All Blacks against wounded French

  • 19/06/2018

The All Blacks admit that the wounded French dominated aspects of the second test in Wellington.

New Zealand grinded out a 26-13 win but were outplayed by 14 men in the second-half, with Les Blues dominating territory and possession by over 70 percent.

Assistant coach Ian Foster acknowledges that the physical French side dominated the tackle, breakdown and set-piece for large portions of the second test.

Given the likelihood of another passionate performance from their opposition this weekend, there is zero chance the All Blacks will be taking them lightly.

"There is no such thing as a dead rubber when it comes to test matches," Foster said.

"Everyone expects us to win so the minute we start treating a game as a dead rubber then we will get a performance and result we are not happy with.

"If you are sitting in the French shed right now then you would be pretty motivated.

"They have had one game when the played very well but the score blew out in the end and another where the probably walked away with a real edge over us in many aspects."

Foster noted the All Blacks owe themselves and the country a close to complete performance on Saturday night.

All Blacks assistant coach Ian Foster.
All Blacks assistant coach Ian Foster. Photo credit: Photosport

Having sat through a frustrating 80 minutes in Wellington, the former Waikato first-five admits the selectors took a long hard look at themselves during the match review.

Foster believes they may have got a few things tactically and selectorally wrong in Wellington but the reaction early this week from the players has been excellent.

"We weren't very satisfied with the result that we got and we had to look hard at ourselves about how we dealt with that game.

"As a team we have had at it and we are all pretty disappointed that we didn't back up one good scoreline with a quality performance, which is what we were looking at.

"The response has been excellent, as you would expect from an All Blacks team.

"It's up to us now to back up the words with a quality performance come Saturday."

The hotly debated topic stemming from the Wellington test surrounds the red card to French winger Benjamin Fall.

Referee Angus Gardner sent Fall from the field after a dangerous collision with All Blacks general Beauden Barrett.

World Rugby rescinded the red card yesterday claiming here was no malicious intent from Fall.

Foster would like to see a slight amendment to the interpretation of what a dangerous tackle or act is in order to avoid debatable send offs.

"The game is full of situations where referees make judgement calls," Foster said.

"I think everyone wants 15 versus 15 as much as we can.

"I think what we could introduce is more categories.

"It seems at the moment that the terms dangerous and reckless cover everything. I think we all agree that what happened on Saturday, while dangerous, lacked intention."

Foster did add that he supports the use of red cards if players commit acts that intentionally threaten player safety.

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