Ian Foster ‘doesn’t care who wins’ between England and Springboks but expects ‘interesting contrast of styles’
Ian Foster congratulates Ardie Savea after the All Blacks' Rugby World Cup semi-final win over Argentina.
New Zealand head coach Ian Foster is not concerned about who he will face in next weekend’s Rugby World Cup final and plans to enjoy a bowl of popcorn while watching Saturday’s semi-final between England and South Africa in Paris.
The All Blacks boss is set to be in a relaxed mood for the clash between the Red Rose and the Springboks after his side cruised to a 44-6 victory over Argentina in their semi-final at the Stade de France on Friday.
Extra day’s rest for All Blacks
Foster is preparing to see an “interesting contrast of styles” in the other last-four game as his team will now have the luxury of an extra day’s rest as they await the identity of their opponents in the final.
“I’ll be watching it,” he said after the All Blacks’ win over Los Pumas. “I’ll probably have some popcorn and sit there and watch it, and I don’t care who wins. We’re very much in a focus-about-ourselves stage.
“One thing that extra day does give us, it gives us a bit of a chance to have a break mentally and not to spend too much juice worrying about if it’s them, if it’s them.
“They’re both good teams. South Africa have been playing some brilliant rugby the last few weeks and are clearly on top of their game.
“But we’ve also seen an English side that just build away quietly and are probably starting to understand how they want to play, and they’re starting to get really good at how they want to play and believe in that.
“It will be an interesting contrast of styles.”
The All Blacks ran in seven tries against Los Pumas, with flyer Will Jordan rewarded with a hat-trick, which lifted him above France’s Damian Penaud as the World Cup’s leading try scorer on eight.
Jordan’s try-scoring feat means he equalled the record for tries in a single tournament, putting him in illustrious company alongside countrymen Jonah Lomu and Julian Savea as well as South Africa’s Bryan Habana.
Foster emptied his replacements bench long before the full-time whistle due to the emphatic scoreline and kept the sin-binned Scott Barrett on the sidelines for around five minutes longer than required as New Zealand finished with 14 men.
When asked if those situations could prove advantageous moving towards the final, Foster said: “I don’t think they’ll make a massive difference.
“Finals are finals, and whoever we play, they’ll be a hundred per cent.
“It was an opportunity for us to make sure that we looked after our resources as best we could.
“We really didn’t see a need of putting Scooter (Barrett) back on, only from the perspective that if he had another little yellow card incident in the next five minutes, it might have made it a little bit niggly.”
Argentina failed to reproduce the form which helped them to a deserved victory over Wales in the quarter-finals. Two penalties from Emiliano Boffelli in the first half was all they had to show for their efforts.
Apart from Jordan’s hat-trick, the All Blacks’ other tries were scored by Shannon Frizell (2), Jordie Barrett and Aaron Smith, while Richie Mo’unga added three conversions and a penalty.
Argentina boss Michael Cheika felt New Zealand ruthlessly exploited each of his side’s mistakes and was unhappy with some of the officiating, particularly during first-half rucks.
Promises improvement from Argentina
Cheika promised his players would respond to a difficult encounter in the bronze-medal match.
“It’s not a sad moment; it’s a moment when I’m actually proud of my team,” he said.
“It’s not an easy path that we’ve been on. We’ve invested ourselves a lot in this. But we’ve lost on details. I’m sad for them.
“It’s hard, but its a good thing it’s hard. On Friday, we will be there, have no doubt. We will not leave this way.
“We want to finish third. We’ve got things we want to show in the bronze final. Right now, we’re hurting.”
