Foster reaches for something to salvage

After the carnage at Mbombela Stadium, the All Blacks have to pick up the pieces at one of rugby's most daunting places to visit.

Their 26-10 defeat has cranked up the pressure on coach Ian Foster, who has to engineer a win in the wake of his team's second biggest defeat to the Springboks.

The All Blacks appeared well off the pace and at no point did they look capable of upstaging the Springboks in front of a sold out crowd.

Surveying the carnage post match, Foster reached for whatever there was to salvage. What came out of his mouth would have come as cold comfort for All Blacks fans who have watched their team lose five of their last six Tests.

Foster believes his team had shown some improvements since their deciding Test loss to Ireland last month.

“I felt it was probably our most improved performance this year,” said the beleaguered coach.

“I felt in some areas we really shifted our game forward. In a game dominated by defence, we defended well, but our timing was out on the attack side and we’re going to have a look at that.”

Ordinarily the prospect of going to Ellis Park would not daunt the All Blacks, who have won three of their last six Tests there. They also won at Soccer City in 2012.

However, the team under Foster has shown little of the championship qualities that routinely took them to Tri-Nations and Rugby Championship crowns.

Foster, whose job must be in serious jeopardy, pleaded for calm.

“We’ve got to look at today, and just calm down and say we’ve got one more chance at Ellis Park to win a trophy that’s pretty special to us. They had the first bite at it and we’ve got to respond. Part of that is going to be absorbing the lessons, relax and take a moment on the ball and get our skill sets right.”

The coach pointed to the perils of spending too much time taking in views from the outside.

“It’s not a matter of shutting it out — it’s there all the time. If you spend too much time immersed in it, it doesn’t do the team any good. We know we’ve had a few losses, but in all honesty I thought we shifted up a couple of cogs in this Test, and made some significant improvement.”

Foster said the team was excited to be going to Ellis Park, but on the evidence of what they delivered in the Rugby Championship opener they should be dreading the trip.

Foster and his coaching team has much to fix this week. His team wasn't only scrummed into oblivion, they were also beaten to the punch at the breakdown and failed to grasp the contestable kicks.

Their attack is blunt, again suffering at the hands of suffocating, robust defence. They only breached the Bok try line when the hosts were a player down late in the game.

“I know people are frustrated, and we’re frustrated with the results,” Foster said.

“But you don’t achieve growth if you get too panicky, start making dramatic changes and put too much pressure on players. We want them to feel the pressure tonight, understand what it’s like playing Test matches over here, and we’ve got to be sharper in what we do.

“I fully believe in the skill sets of the players we’ve got.”

To be fair, the problems Foster face this week are unlikely to immediately disappear with someone else in change. The All Blacks, for once, appear a team desperately short of the manpower to do the jersey justice.