FOSTER SAYS THAT BAD LUCK AND BAD DECISIONS COST THE ALL BLACK. ALSO READ: Springbok star issues warning about United Rugby Championship
Foster, who was always expected to resign as All Blacks coach following the World Cup, expressed his emotions on The Platform podcast, saying he felt his team was unfairly defeated in the pivotal game.
He also believed that bad luck was plaguing his team.
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Foster remarked, “You can look at some of the controllables. Ardie ran onto a great Jordie Barrett chip in the first half, but the ball didn’t bounce in his direction.”
“In the final twenty, we had a few goal kicks that went wide.
“I believe that we should have won the World Cup with a penalty kick close to where Jordie missed his opening attempt.
“Kwagga Smith won a ball during the breakdown for which we were not awarded a penalty, and it was evident that he had hands on the ground.
“The drama of a 48-meter penalty to end a World Cup would have been detrimental to anyone’s nerves in any case.
“But see, there are a lot of “what ifs,” but that is the reality.”
A CLASSIC END
Foster acknowledges that people’s memories of the final game will eventually deteriorate and that very few people will recall anything about his All Blacks team’s defeat.
He admitted that he might never fully recover from the setback.
“We’ve always said World Cups are special, and if you look back to 2011, for instance, we defeated France 8–7 in a really close game,” Foster pondered.
“People only recall the victory, not how close the game was.
In the final moments of that match, the French yelled for a penalty.
Am I philosophical? I guess I am about it but what I’ve learnt, I’ll never get over it I don’t think, but there is no point us carrying around a lot of anger about it either because it doesn’t change.
“We’ve just got to acknowledge that’s what finals are about, there is a bit of drama on all counts.”
