Foster's retention means rivals have a familiar enemy

The All Blacks head coach Ian Foster has been given the backing to continue and will coach the New Zealand side until after the 2023 World Cup at least.

After all the speculation, it was the 35-23 win over the Springboks at Ellis Park that saved Foster’s job, and after some amazing turnarounds by the NZ Rugby Board, Foster has been backed to continue in the position.

And while it may be to the All Blacks' detriment in the long run, and would have left coaches across the world smiling, there is an outside chance Foster could be like Jake White and inspire a run of form that takes him towards France 2023 on the back of some good results.

Now that the All Blacks have passed their Ireland tour and South African games, there is a real likelihood that they could win the Rugby Championship, and the away win in South Africa could inspire that.

Argentina have one win in history in New Zealand and have to face the All Blacks there twice, while the Wallabies have perennially been the Kiwi whipping boys, so it is highly likely the All Blacks could romp home for the rest of the competition.

They face Wales and Scotland on the November tour before taking on England at Twickenham in their last big test for the year, and it isn’t inconceivable that Foster could enjoy a healthy run of results until then and the talk of the All Black demise would be forgotten.

That doesn’t mean that other teams won’t be happy about the result. The old term “better the devil you know” applies quite handily here and Ireland and France will both be confident of beating a Foster-coached team in the World Cup, as will the Springboks if they do meet.

The irony therein may be that the Boks saved Foster’s job and gave themselves a better chance at the World Cup than if, say, Scott Robertson suddenly breakdanced his way into the coaching role.

In the end, the win left the board of NZ Rugby with little option, especially as they looked inept in making a decision either way and left Foster in limbo, while fans and pundits piled on the pressure.

So while CEO Mark Robinson called it a “new dawn” for All Black rugby, it is anything but. It is a rehash of the same coaching philosophy with Joe Schmidt taking a more active role in the coaching of the side.

Foster has now provided the management with his own recommendations and having got the backing, they have fallen in line.

"[The board] have unanimously agreed they have absolute confidence that Ian and this coaching group are the right people to lead the All Blacks through until the World Cup. This has been privately and publicly validated by our players and various conversation with our high-performance team,” board chairman Stewart Mitchell said at the press conference announcing the move.

A recommendation that was agreed upon was for Joe Schmidt to be elevated to full-time assistant coach.

"Joe Schmidt has been on my radar, probably for a couple of years," said Foster.

"We flagged at the start of this year that his role was to join us after the Irish series as an independent selector to replace Grant Fox and in addition, he was going to do some opposition analysis work and work alongside myself in the strategy area.

"We started that after the Irish series and delighted with how that's going. I have a great relationship with Joe."

Foster admitted it had been a hard time, but it is doubtful if his relationship with the media in New Zealand will be healed, especially after his comments on the weekend about how personal some of the criticism has gotten.

With that in mind, there will always be those who doubt the All Black coach, and the three sides on a collision course in France next year will happily continue their plotting for that meeting, not having to change tactics for a new coaching structure.

"It's a privilege to be in this job, it's never something you take for granted," Foster told a press conference in Auckland.

The good thing for NZ Rugby is that at least they have taken a decision and the team can move forward. Whether Foster is the right man to lead them into the World Cup awaits to be seen.

But it does mean more of the same, and for the World Cup opposition of the All Blacks, all of whom have beaten the black jersey resoundingly in the past 12 months, that can’t be a bad thing.