‘Calm down’, All Blacks coach Ian Foster not panicking despite historic 35-7 Springboks spanking

LONDON – Coach Ian Foster said the All Blacks were not panicking ahead of the Rugby World Cup despite

being thrashed 35-7 by the world champion Springboks

in their final warmup at Twickenham.

New Zealand lost Scott Barrett to a red card and shipped five tries on Friday on the way to their heaviest defeat in 102 years of playing Test rugby, setting off alarm bells back home.

Foster said there were some mitigating circumstances due to the necessity of giving certain players game time and, although the All Blacks looked “rusty”, he urged his notoriously skittish compatriots to keep their cool.

“We’re confident. It didn’t look like that, and I know we got a good spanking, so I’m not hiding from that fact. We’re not panicking about that result,” the 58-year-old told the All Blacks website.

“We knew we were going to get challenged. It’s not the result we wanted. I still believe in the plan.

“I still believe the group that needed to play played. Scott, not as long as I would’ve liked.”

The All Blacks were bullied up front at times by the hulking South African forwards and their discipline faltered when they were put under pressure with skipper Sam Cane also sin-binned.

Foster said he expected hosts France to similarly try to target the All Blacks pack during their World Cup opener at Stade de France on Sept 8.

“We’ve now got a good litmus test of where we’re at. Everyone is in the same boat after this weekend,” he added.

"We've got to use our camp in Germany really smart and go into France and get stuck into what's going to be an exciting World Cup.

“There was a lot of emotion in the sheds afterwards, but we’ve just got to calm down and say, ‘that’s World Cups’. If you’re looking for a dress rehearsal that’s perfect.”

The three-time World Cup winners also face Italy, Uruguay and Namibia in Pool A at the Sept 8-Oct 28 showpiece.

Meanwhile, Eddie Jones looked for the positives despite Australia losing for a fifth straight game under his new reign on Sunday, beaten 41-17 by France in their World Cup warmup to leave the Wallabies with their backs to the wall ahead of the tournament.

He took over as coach in January, not long after being fired by England, but since his arrival they have lost to South Africa, Argentina, New Zealand twice and now the World Cup hosts in the last of their preparatory tests.

“The final score is important, don’t get me wrong, but we are aiming higher than this game,” the 63-year-old said after the match at the Stade de France, where they will return on Sept 9 for their first Pool C clash against Georgia.

“It was a pleasure to be there, but we still have work to do before the World Cup, especially the first match.

“We did some good things, we have to continue to progress. We are not a bad team. We are not a good team yet but we are improving.

“We tried to play differently but I appreciated the way the guys never gave up.”

Jones made radical changes to the squad ahead of the tournament and, never short of self-confidence, said he believed his approach was on the right track.

“Obviously we’d like to have a better win-loss record but we’ve re-established the team. We’ve taken away all the leadership that was there previously. We’ve got a new leadership team in place. We’re trying to play a different way,” he added.

“The results haven’t been good. It hasn’t been good enough. I’m not hiding away from that but we do have a longer-term plan in terms of the World Cup and that’s what we’re here for.”

Jones insisted many players had shown improvements and singled out the performance of the front five.

“Our scrum probably finished on top and the line-out was good. I thought the way we were able to negate France’s defence was pretty good. We just didn’t execute it well enough,” he added.

Australia, who were World Cup winners in 1991 and 1999, also share their opening round pool with Fiji, Portugal and Wales and will be expected to advance to the knockout stages.

REUTERS