Sunday special: Chaos reigns as media cancelled

Strange goings on in Wellington and what a post-Foster world might look like ($$$)

Losses to Ireland will frame Foster’s reign. Photo / Getty Images

This newsletter was in a state of flux due to the intriguing cancellation of Ian Foster’s Sunday morning press call, followed by a statement from New Zealand Rugby CEO Mark Robinson that was the epitome of non-committal.

If English football managers are said to be damned by the chairman’s vote of confidence, The Bounce is really not sure how Foster should approach this vote of non-acceptance.

“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,” Robinson said via a statement.

“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 [go] from here.

“We will begin this work immediately.”

Why Foster didn’t front, as pretty much every All Black coach has the day after a test, win or lose, since a long time ago, was not immediately clear. The coach himself said he didn’t know why it had been binned and if he’s telling the truth, it’s not a good sign that he has not been looped in.