Loose Pass: The futures of All Blacks head coach Ian Foster, Worcester Warriors and the Scottish Rugby Union

This week we will mostly be concerning ourselves with Ian Foster’s future, the Premiership’s future and Scottish rugby’s future…

In a world currently full of imbalances and instability, there are bound to be those who fall off, or are shoved off, their chosen path. As Loose Pass has mentioned several times, the ongoing lawsuit regarding concussions has the potential to damage the finances and image of the game beyond repair.

But even within the game, the imbalances have disrupted things. New Zealand, isolated from the world for the best part of a couple of years at large by a mixture of their union’s strategic choices and the pandemic, slipped from first to fifth in the world in a few weeks after an unprecedented run of defeats.

Surely the coach had to go? I mean, you have Scott Robertson, universally acclaimed, recently-decorated and really good at creating money-spinning instagram reels for Silverlake with those breakdances, waiting in the wings. Meanwhile you have Foster looking weary, almost giving himself the vote of confidence notably absent from a number of his employer’s soundbites. The maths is obvious, right?

Well, normally yes, but New Zealand’s history points one quite significant lesson: you take the team into account.

Richie McCaw’s autobiography chapter in which he described the re-appointment process of Graham Henry, made as it was on the backdrop of a crushing Rugby World Cup defeat to France and with Robbie Deans champing at the bit to turn the All Blacks into the Crusaders, is instructive here.

When it came down to it, McCaw knew both that the team had bought into Henry’s vision, culture and identity, and that Henry had already had laid his plans for progression. He also believed that Henry’s