When the Covid-19 pandemic struck last year, Super Rugby came to a standstill, with the Bulls, Lions, Sharks, and Stormers joining the United Rugby Championship in the northern hemisphere.
Despite the fact that New Zealand and Australia are still competing in a revamped Super Rugby league that now includes Pacific Island nations, Foster admits that the presence of physically intimidating South Africans has been missed.
“I could say something and it’ll probably give a few headlines, but, at the end of the day, it’s been well-documented why South Africa aren’t in it at the moment,” Foster told The Breakdown.
“The travel would have been impossible the last two or three years, and before that, a lot of the South African top players were leaving and playing in Europe, which sort of weakened their teams.
“In an ideal world, I loved having South Africa in the competition. They brought a different style, and now we’ve just got to find other ways to grow our experience of playing them.
“It’s changed around a lot, Super Rugby, over many, many years. When rugby went professional and it [Super Rugby] started, everyone thought it’d be the downfall of New Zealand rugby because we wouldn’t be able to deal in the professional era.
“But we’ve shown that we’ve got some great franchises there at the moment, all doing a lot of work in terms of the development, linking with the provincial unions, and the system.
“Whilst we critique it hard, we talk about its weaknesses, it’s also got a massive degree of strength to it, and it has helped support an All Black team that has consistently been able to perform at the top echelon.
“We just want to keep having a tough, even competition and, where possible, have as many games against other countries’ players as well.”
In 2021, New Zealand won 12 of 15 tests and easily won the Rugby Championship, but they lost back-to-back Tests against Ireland and France to complete their year-end trip on a down note.
Prior to the new season, Foster previously stated that a well-balanced evaluation procedure was required.
“Reviewing is a multilayered activity,” Foster explained, “and everyone will discover different ways to do it.”
“Every week, we perform an evaluation for us.” We’ve grown accustomed to having difficult discussions with one another following test matches and training sessions.
“When you review, I believe the problem is to make sure it doesn’t become a judgment from one group to the other.”
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