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'Kwagga Smith had hands on the ground': Foster believes final should have ended with penalty to All Blacks
By Ben Smith
Departing All Blacks head coach Ian Foster has offered his take on the end of the Rugby World Cup final which saw the Springboks win 12-11 over New Zealand to claim back-to-back crowns.
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The All Blacks coaches sought clarity on a number of calls after their review. After receiving private acknowledgement of some errors and an apology from World Rugby, Foster has spent “many nights” waking up thinking about how his side could have scored at least one more point.
His view is that the World Cup final should have ended on a penalty to the All Blacks near halfway for an infringement by flanker Kwagga Smith at a ruck.
That would have given Jordie Barrett one last chance to nail a long range kick to take the lead after he had missed one earlier in the dying stages.
“You can look at some of the controllables, there was a great Jordie Barrett chip in the first half and Ardie ran onto it, the ball didn’t bounce his way,” Foster said on The Platform podcast.
“We had a couple of goal kicks in that last 20 that didn’t go over.
“I think the World Cup should have finished on a penalty to us, near where Jordie missed his first kick.
“Kwagga Smith clearly had hands on the ground when he won a ball at the breakdown that we didn’t get a penalty for.
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“The drama of having a 48 metre penalty to finish a World Cup, that wouldn’t have done anyone’s nerves any good anyway.
“But look, there’s a whole lot of ‘what ifs’, but that’s what it is.”
The All Blacks head coach was still immensely proud of his side after captain Sam Cane was red carded early in the first half.
Down to 14 players for the remainder of the clash, the All Blacks outscored South Africa 8-3 during that time.
Foster credited the adjustments made at half-time with the focus and clarity of the players led to a big second half push.
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The final score was just “finals footy” and he looked back to the 2011 Rugby World Cup where the All Blacks ended up on the other side.
“We’ve always said World Cups are unique and you look back at 2011 for example, we won a really tight game against France 8-7,” he recalled.
“People forget about how tight that game was, they just remember the victory.
“There were cries from the French for a penalty in the last part of that game.
“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.”
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The writer here ignores the fact that, following on from not taking the penalty kick, the All Blacks did manage to score a try a few minutes later. Not directly from the penalty awarded, but it is speculation to say that had they opted to take the koi they would have won. Even if they kicked it, which was no guarantee, they would still be trailing and would have had to start again at half-way.
Go to commentsI would be surprised if Sales Opoku Fordjour and Northampton’s Tommy Freeman are not in the team, Anthony Watson is also one that could go on the wing. One thing I must say is that the front 3 will get destroyed against a team like South Africa.
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