Sunday’s Bledisloe opener will ultimately be won by the men out in the middle, but the battle between the All Blacks’ Ian Foster and Wallabies’ Dave Rennie – both of whom are coaching their first international match – is perhaps the most intriguing matchup of all.
Yet in two lines, Alan Jones summed up just who is most under pressure heading into the first Test of the year.
“We want their new coach, Ian Foster, to be anxious at halftime when he addresses his troops,” Jones, the last Wallabies coach to beat the All Blacks at Eden Park, wrote in his weekly column for The Australian.
“Foster can’t afford to lose his first game in charge. Remember, most All Black supporters don’t want Foster as the coach.”
What Jones didn’t add, either, was that an anonymous survey of all five Super Rugby teams in New Zealand, released by media company NZME, found that almost half of their players didn’t think New Zealand Rugby made the right choice by appointing Foster as Steve Hansen’s successor.
The survey found 46 per cent of Super Rugby players felt NZR got the appointment wrong, while 28 per cent said the long-term All Blacks assistant coach had been the right choice.
The remaining 26 per cent said they were comfortable with Foster but not his choice of assistants - John Plumtree, Scott McLeod, Greg Feek and Brad Mooar.
The survey was conducted after Scott Robertson had led the Crusaders to their third successive Super Rugby title.
So, in many ways, it is the man they call “Fozzie” that is most under pressure ahead of Sunday’s Test, particularly given Australian rugby has been written off all year by their counterparts.
Nor are the two coaches unfamiliar to one another.
In 2012, Rennie replaced Foster as Chiefs coach.
Rennie did what Foster could not in eight years by winning the Super Rugby competition in his first year as head coach and backed it up a year later to prove it wasn’t a fluke.
In a wide-ranging interview with RUGBY.com.au, former World Cup-winning All Blacks playmaker Aaron Cruden revealed how Rennie turned the Chiefs from underachievers into the envy of the southern hemisphere.
“Rens will invest in developing a strong culture because he believes, ultimately, that’s half the job done,” Cruden said.
“Obviously you’ve still got to have the ability on the field, and he’s got to coach and teach his players to play a certain style that’s going to be a winning style, but I think he tries to unite the players through the culture of the group, which can be difficult because there’s a lot of different cultures, there’s a diverse range of ethnicities as well that are associated with rugby teams, but he certainly dedicates a lot of time in that and coming into the Chiefs in 2012, I reckon that was a big part of us being so successful.”
It was an aspect All Blacks veteran Sam Whitelock, who was 19 when he first came across Rennie with New Zealand’s under-20s side, highlighted too.
“I had Rens for New Zealand Under-20s as head coach and he was awesome, I really enjoyed how he brought the team together,” Whitelock said of Rennie.
“Obviously a different environment with under-20s, a game every four days, and in a tournament like that it’s pretty ruthless because it’s short and compact. Rens did an awesome job for us, he was a big reason why we were successful.
“No doubt he’ll be doing the same with them, he’ll be connecting them and it’s a challenge for us to make sure we’re just as connected, if not more.”
On announcing his maiden Wallabies team, Rennie tried to shift the focus away from the coaches but said he was looking forward to catching up with Foster.
“I know him pretty well but in the end it's not really about us, it's about the team and that's been my focus,” he said.
“Ideal scenario I would catch up with Fozzy and have a beer the night before the game. It's going to be a bit tight with us getting out of quarantine and trying to get into Wellington but no doubt we will catch up and have a beer in Auckland.”
While the All Blacks are guessing how the Wallabies will play under Rennie, just whether Foster can breathe new life into the three-time world champions is equally fascinating.
As was the case with Manchester United when Sir Alex Ferguson left after 26 years, the pressure is on Foster to keep the All Blacks at the top of the rugby world – something the powerhouse English football club couldn’t do when David Moyes replaced the Scot.
Whitelock, who will play his 118th Test on Sunday, said that Foster’s arrival had brought some new energy to the All Blacks.
“I got asked that the other day comparing Steve, to Ted [Graham Henry] and Fozzie. The easiest way to sum it up is, Steve is an ex-cop so he runs it a bit that way, and Ted being an ex-principal, kinda like that... and I haven’t quite worked out Fozzie and how to sum him up in a couple of words,” Whitelock said.
“It’s good, really refreshing for myself and some of the other guys who’ve been around a while, having that fresh look at things and the boys are excited as to how it will go in test week.”
Sunday's Test will be the first of four straight matches between the trans-Tasman rivals.
Asked about the daunting prospect, Rennie effortlessly dealt with the question like a batsman flicking it off their pads.
"I wanted five, so disappointed," he quipped.
But come Sunday afternoon it will be no time for joking. The stakes are high for both men and getting off to a winning start could be more important than first meets the eye for these two New Zealand coaches.
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