An emotional but measured Ian Foster has lifted the lid on his plans now that he is about to be unemployed, saying he would consider coaching against the All Blacks and even raised the possibility he would be open to doing so alongside current assistant Joe Schmidt.

Sitting at a very quiet All Blacks team hotel at the Paris Country Club a day after the chaos, joy and tears of South Africa’s 12-11 World Cup victory at the Stade de France, Foster spoke to a New Zealand media contingent for just over 22 minutes about what comes next for him, and also his views on Sam Cane’s red card and why he feels World Rugby need to work out what they want from a television match official.

That, he said, was the biggest challenge facing the international game today.

He spoke about how he would like to be remembered after a tumultuous four years in charge and involvement with the team that began alongside Sir Steve Hansen in 2012.

He reiterated that he thought it was a wrong decision for New Zealand Rugvy to announce that Scott Robertson would take over after the World Cup because it was the wrong thing for the team.

He also refused to offer any advice to Robertson or endorse Cane as captain because he felt it wasn’t his place to do so.

He revealed what he will miss most about the job, saying: “I’m gonna miss walking up the stairs to the coaches’ box before a Test. There’s something about taking your seat and watching the All Blacks play and, believe it or not, I love that.

“After that it’s the people. Full stop. It’s seeing young men grow and be put under the same pressure that I get put under and learning how to deal with that.”

A priority remains mowing the lawns at home. Beyond that it’s clear he has received coaching offers but he said it was a conscious decision to refuse to engage with them until after the World Cup.

“I disagreed with how this year went,” he said regarding the drama surrounding his role. “I said that publicly. I disagreed with the decisions that New Zealand Rugby made on the basis that what I felt was the best thing for this team. It wasn’t based on my desire to coach beyond this World Cup.

“I stand by that. Even my players last night and today are telling me ‘well now you can tell me what you’ve got planned, Ian’, and I said when I made that decision in March to speak out, I also made a decision to refuse to talk to anyone about my plans.

“Any time I got offered any opportunity to coach after the World Cup I said I wasn’t interested until after the World Cup to talk about it. I felt the team deserved to have an All Black head coach that they knew was 100% committed to this team right now.

“There are no secret plans. It may be my stubborn pride but I … didn’t want them reading that I was talking to someone else… because I don’t think that’s conducive to a team

Source: TVNZ