All Blacks inquest puts Ian Foster and Sam Cane at risk following series defeat to Ireland

As a veteran of multiple tours, Sexton knows the struggle of trying to be an attentive husband and father while being bombarded by memories of his most recent Test match, especially if it was a defeat. “You drag it around with you all summer,” he said.

The Sextons should enjoy a happy family holiday this year. Dad didn’t only play well, he led an Ireland team who created history by becoming the first country to win a Test series in New Zealand in rugby’s 27-year professional era.

Most pleasing of all for their head coach, Andy Farrell, was that they did it the hard way, by recovering from a setback in the first Test in Auckland - “the hardest thing to do in rugby by a country mile,” as Farrell put it.

The Englishman was unsure what pleased him more - the cold ruthlessness of Ireland’s first-half performance, when they scored three tries to lead 22-3 at the break, or the composure they showed to withstand the inevitable All Black resurgence in the second half.

If building mental strength has been the main theme of Ireland’s hugely demanding yet enormously rewarding five-game tour then that second-half composure is a huge step forward.

“The best part of the game was when they came back at us, how we stayed neutral,” Farrell said. “We never missed a beat, we got back on track. We knew that New Zealand were always going to have a big purple patch, because they always do.

“I thought we were mentally very tough and we’re getting better at that. Are we anywhere near where we want to be? We’re not. We’re definitely not.”

It was as if Farrell wanted to pre-empt any accusations that Ireland are peaking too soon in advance of next year’s World Cup. They have previous in this regard - winning a grand slam under Joe Schmidt in 2018, when Farrell was defence coach, then underperforming at the World Cup in Japan a year later.

This squad seems inordinately reliant on their captain, who turned 37 last week, but they are also extremely comfortable in each other’s company, completely trusting in the coaching abilities of Farrell, Mike Catt (attack), Paul O’Connell (forwards), Simon Easterby (defence) and John Fogarty (scrum).

And they are clearly developing the ability to navigate their way out of troubled waters. Previous Ireland sides would have crumbled under the weight of pressure when Ardie Savea, Akira Ioane and Will Jordan scored tries in the third quarter. This team responded by trusting the power of their maul, which yielded a match-turning try for Rob Herring, the replacement hooker.

“Yes, the mental side of the game is something that we’ve worked on strongly since the last World Cup, really,” Sexton said. “It doesn’t just change automatically. It’s been gradual. We saw some improvements through the Six Nations, especially [in the 32-15 win] at Twickenham, when we struggled against 14 men for a while. But we bounced back from that.

“Look, it’s only 18 months ago that we were being written off, so [coming back from] that shows fortitude as well. It would be amazing to go and pick out some of the articles that were written 18 months ago about us, about me. It would be good to go back and look and keep our feet on the ground.”

On the evidence of Saturday, the only thing stopping them from breaking new ground in France and reaching the last four is a brute of a draw, with South Africa, New Zealand and France all in their half. Only two of those four teams will make it to the semi-finals.

One consequence of the past two weeks is that New Zealand are now forced to get their house in order. The flaws in their game were all too obvious on Saturday - the implosion of the lineout and the softness of their maul defence, for example - and point to a failure of coaching.

They still have backs of outstanding natural talent, including Jordan, Rieko Ioane and Beauden Barrett but not the game plan to maximise that talent. In short they look rudderless.

Sam Cane, the captain, who was replaced after 65 minutes, looks particularly vulnerable. For the second week running his game lacked discipline and the needless penalty he conceded for tackling an opponent off the ball gave Ireland the platform for Josh van der Flier’s early try.

But most of the pressure is on Ian Foster, the head coach, for whom the post-match press conference was an uncomfortable experience. Despite his insistence that he wanted only to speak about the game, he was asked repeatedly about his suitability for the job, until eventually the media officer had to redirect the questioning.

Foster said that he was puzzled by the decision to show Ireland’s Andrew Porter only a yellow card for his head-on-head “tackle” on Brodie Retallick, when a similar challenge had brought a red card for Angus Ta’avao in Dunedin. But Foster did not really want to whinge.

“New Zealanders have probably got to realise that this was a very good Irish team,” he said. “It would be disrespectful of us not to acknowledge that. They deserve their time in the sun.”

That remark implies that New Zealand will shove them unceremoniously back into the shade if, or when, the teams meet again in France. It just seems unlikely that Foster will still be in charge next year. He is contracted until then, but the clamour to replace him with Scott Robertson, so consistently successful with Crusaders, or with Schmidt, will only intensify after this latest setback.

The All Blacks’ next assignment - against the Springboks in Mbombela - is hardly the easiest way to bounce back. Meanwhile Farrell and Sexton can reflect with satisfaction on a tour that many considered too gruelling, with five matches in the space of 17 days, including a couple of fixtures against the Maori All Blacks.

Having lost the first of those in Hamilton, and then the first Test in Auckland, they were staring down the barrel. Now it is a 3-2 triumph and Farrell is being lauded as a visionary.

Did he ever wonder, in the early part of the tour, when he was running out of props and bodies were dropping like flies, if he was putting too much pressure on his players?

“Every day, but that was the point,” Farrell said. “I asked too much of myself and the staff as well, but that was the point: to see whether we had excuses, to see whether we had people who just go ‘tunnel vision’ and start worrying about themselves instead of ‘team first’ - because that’s a big mantra of ours.

“So, that way, we were always going to get the learnings that we were craving. Of course there’s a bit of luck here and there but there was never any excuses. Only these guys know - the people that are part of the group know the truth. We put them under some immense pressure on purpose and they never missed a beat.

“Not one person had an excuse, not one person gave out about anything. They’ve been unbelievably easy to manage and they’ve all bought in, and therefore to come away with what is the hardest thing to do in world rugby, under those conditions, is pretty special.”

Scorers: New Zealand: Tries A Savea (43min), A Ioane (53), W Jordan (60). Cons: J Barrett 2. Pen: J Barrett. Ireland: Tries: J van der Flier (4), H Keenan (28), R Henshaw (38), R Herring (65) Cons: Sexton 3. Pen: Sexton.

New Zealand: J Barrett; W Jordan, R Ioane (R Tuivasa-Sheck 70min), D Havili, S Reece (R Mo’unga 61); B Barrett, A Smith (F Fakatava 61); G Bower (K Tu’inukuafe 71), C Taylor (D Coles 62), N Laulala (O Tu’ungafasi 40-44), B Retallick, S Whitelock, A Ioane, S Cane (capt), A Savea.

Ireland: H Keenan; M Hansen, G Ringrose, B Aki (K Earls 69), J Lowe; J Sexton (J Carbery 76), J Gibson-Park (C Murray 71); A Porter (sin-bin 51; C Healy 70), D Sheehan (R Herring 60), T Furlong (F Bealham 70), T Beirne (K Treadwell 76), J Ryan, P O’Mahony (J Conan 66), J van der Flier (C Healy 53-61), C Doris.

Referee: W Barnes (Eng)

Attendance: 34,500.

- The Times

Originally published as All Blacks inquest puts Ian Foster and Sam Cane at risk following series defeat to Ireland