New Zealand coach Ian Foster has delivered his verdict on Wayne Pivac’s Wales and outlined how they have changed since the Warren Gatland era.
Foster has arrived in Cardiff with his All Blacks squad ahead of Saturday’s eagerly-anticipated showdown at the Principality Stadium.
Speaking to WalesOnline, he gave his thoughts on the job his countryman Pivac has done at the helm of this weekend’s opponents.
“Wayne has been around the New Zealand scene for a long time and is much respected for what he’s done,” he said. “I have watched with interest him taking over from Warren Gatland and how he has transitioned that Welsh team. They’re certainly playing a slightly different style and they look like they’re enjoying the style. They’re very strong defensively, which is a natural trait with Wales, but they do look like they’ve got a little more ambition about how they want to play.”
Reflecting on how 2022 has gone for Wales so far, Foster said: “The Six Nations is a tournament of momentum. If you get it early you can kind of go through and they didn’t. They had a couple of results not go their way and they struggled out of that.
“But the series in South Africa was excellent. It’s not easy going over there. Even though the Springboks made a lot of changes in that second Test, it was still a quality performance by Wales.
“This will be a big game for them. We came up here last year and probably caught them short, but they will certainly be ready for this one. We love coming to Cardiff, to the stadium. You know what sort of game you’re going to get. It’s going to be physical, they have the ability to play it quite fast.
“We can’t wait. It’s a special place to play. It’s the wonderful passion of the crowd there. The atmosphere is loud. The noise goes up three or four cogs from what we are used to. You have got to narrow down your focus and be real sharp in your communication. That’s going to be critical with the noise.”
Asked if he viewed red-hot Gloucester winger Louis Rees-Zammit as a particular threat, Foster replied: “Yep, no doubt. He’s obviously burst on the scene as a young man and he’s playing well. He’s had plenty of experiences, with the Lions series as well, so he’s packed a lot into a few years. I am sure he is looking forward to it.”
New Zealand warmed up for the match against Wales with a hard-fought 38-31 victory over Japan in Tokyo, a performance which has provoked a fair amount of criticism from pundits back home in New Zealand.
“I’ve been around a lot of All Black games where we have struggled in the first game together after a spell," said Foster. “There were certainly some parts that weren’t up to our standards. We scored 38 points, with five nice tries, but our lineout really didn’t function particularly well and in our transition defence we looked slow to move and not really connected. So those are a couple of critical areas we weren’t up to par, but it was also a pretty good Japan team we played against. They fed off the scraps really well. We knew that was coming and we weren’t quite quick enough, but it was a good building block moving forward.
“We had a significant period of time off. Sometimes you’ve just got to get on the park and play. There were some timing issues, some skill execution, but we’re confident we can get the lineout moving again. It’s been a massive strength for us this year. It was a little bit of an uppercut to us in that area. We weren’t able to impose our game. So much pressure and points come from that facet of the game, especially when you get into the attacking 22. So to miss two or three lineouts in that space was disappointing. It stopped us from really pushing on and we’ve just got to get more efficient in that area.
“We’re into our second week and we’ll roll our sleeves up and do some good work in that space. We’ll take the win and move on. Our plan is to go up a couple of cogs after that first week back.”
The All Blacks are waiting to learn whether they will have key second row Brodie Retallick available for the game against Wales. The 99-cap lock, who was named world player of the year in 2014, was red carded for a dangerous ruck clearout in the Japan game. He will face a disciplinary hearing on Tuesday and faces a potential ban.
Foster said: “It looked pretty innocuous from a number of angles, but we’ll do our talking in the judiciary. We certainly want to go and present a pretty strong rugby case. We will just have to see what unfolds. The Japanese player bounced straight up and came back into the game. It was almost like nothing had happened."
New Zealand will definitely be without flanker Sam Cane and hooker Dane Coles, with the experienced duo having headed home injured. Skipper Cane has two fractures of the cheekbone, while a tightened calf has ended Coles’ tour. “It’s always disappointing to have a couple of guys go on the plane, particularly a couple of our leaders. But it’s a reality of rugby and it creates great new opportunities," said Foster, who has decided on Cane's replacement as captain but is yet to announce the news.
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