By Nick Mulvenney
PARIS New Zealand arrived at the Rugby World Cup in the unusual position of not being favourites but came within a whisker of claiming a fourth title and sending coach Ian Foster out an unlikely winner.
Foster had overseen a turbulent four years since taking over as coach from Steve Hansen after a semi-final exit at the last World Cup, almost losing his job last year after a home series loss to Ireland.
The All Blacks suffered a record loss to South Africa in their final World Cup warm-up at Twickenham and expectations plummeted further after they were beaten by hosts France in their tournament opener, their first ever pool loss.
As they had after their reverses last year, however, the All Blacks bounced back by playing some brilliant attacking rugby to trounce Namibia, Uruguay and Italy and reach the quarter-finals.
In the last eight they downed Six Nations champions Ireland in a test match for the ages before rolling over Argentina to reach their fifth final in 10 World Cups.
Despite losing captain Sam Cane to a red card just before the half hour mark against South Africa at Stade de France on Saturday, the All Blacks came within a missed conversion of taking the Webb Ellis Cup home for a fourth time.
Foster's fate was already sealed and he will soon be replaced by Scott Robertson, who will have the task of building a team without the likes of Aaron Smith, Sam Whitelock, Brodie Retallick, Beauden Barrett and Dane Coles.
Although still capable of playing breathtaking rugby, it is probably fair to say that the once daunting aura of the All Blacks has diminished during the Foster era.
The 58-year-old said several times during the tournament that ultimately World Rugby would have to decide whether they wanted the power game epitomised by the Springboks to prevail at the expense of the more running rugby of the All Blacks.
Overall, though, Foster was simply proud of the team he had built in his four years in charge and the courage and tenacity they showed to take a great South Africa team so close in the 12-11 loss in final.
"I would say there were a lot more ups than downs," Foster said of his time in charge.
"I've been privileged to be with a special group of people. We lost but as a coach you want your team on the big stage and to put their best foot forward, which they did. I couldn't be more proud."
(Reporting by Nick Mulvenney; Editing by Pritha Sarkar)
