New Zealand Rugby chief executive Mark Robinson has voiced his displeasure at the All Blacks’ 2-1 series defeat to Ireland and described the three-time world champions’ recent performances as “not acceptable”. One day after Ireland’s 32-22 triumph over New Zealand sealed a 2-1 series victory, Robinson voiced his displeasure at the All Blacks’ recent performances – they have lost four of their last five Tests – as the pressure increases on the team’s head coach, Ian Foster, ahead of the 2023 Rugby World Cup in France.
The series defeat to Ireland was New Zealand‘s first one on home soil since 1994, when they lost back-to-back Tests against France, and Robinson issued a strongly worded statement on the matter on Sunday. “Congratulations to the Irish team for their well-deserved win last night, but clearly the performance across the series for the All Blacks was not acceptable as we know they have reflected,” he said. “We all know there is a huge amount of work to do. “Our focus now is to work with Ian and his team to understand thoroughly in advance of the Rugby Championship what is needed to improve performance and where to from here. “We will begin this work immediately.” Foster would not answer questions about his future at Saturday’s post-match press conference in Wellington. “I just want to talk about this test match,” Foster said.
Ireland held a 22-3 lead at half-time in Saturday’s Test and the 57-year-old battled to explain why the All Blacks made a poor start for the third successive week. “Not really because we’ve talked a lot about it.
For some reason we’re not as calm, particularly defensively. It’s more the defence where we’re getting fidgety early, we’re letting a few holes through,” said Foster. “Ireland