Bledisloe 2: Ian Foster's bias and Dave Rennie's test
If you watch the All Blacks All or Nothing documentary on Amazon Prime, there are some interesting clues about Ian Foster that might go unnoticed by many given the focus is on the action of the Lions series.
After Gardner’s stuff ups as the AR in Bled 1 (missing the Ione foot on the sideline and then missing the AB joining the ruck from the side and using hands in a formed ruck), this stuff above is incredible. He simply copped out of policing the ruck all together in Bled 2! How can he hold his position as Ref with those performance back to back? If he was a player he’d be stood down permanently by his coach! At the end of the day while Rennie says we lost due to missed tackles, the real problem was the AB ruck speed in recycling the ball. Our ball was slow while theirs was light speed and that led to the missed tackles (not helped by the officiating above which allowed players off their feet willy nilly). It seems to me Rennie needs to take some responsbility for the Ruck tactics that allowed that situation to develop and not instructing the team on how to stop it after half time even if he was ambushed by the tactics in the first half.
How Dave Rennie’s words came back to haunt him at Eden Park