"Congratulations to the Ireland team on their well deserved win last night, but clearly the All Blacks' performance in this series was not acceptable, and we know they have thought about that. We all know that. there is an enormous amount of work to be done," New Zealand Rugby boss Mark Robinson said in a statement.

“Our aim is to work with Ian and his team to fully understand, ahead of the Rugby Championship, what we need to improve performance and what needs to be done from now on. We will start this work immediately,” said he added.

The All Blacks suffered Saturday night a second consecutive loss at home against Ireland (32-22).

It was the first time the New Zealanders had lost back-to-back home matches against a European side since France's 1994 tour.

It is also the first time that they have lost a home Test series against Ireland, who had never won in New Zealand before their success the previous Saturday in Dunedin (23-12).

This first defeat had already weakened Ian Foster a little more, in place since 2020, but who has accumulated bad results since last year, with seven defeats in 24 games, including two against Ireland (29-20) and the France (40-25) in November 2021 who had already cast doubt.

New Zealand have now fallen to fourth place in the world rankings, an unacceptable humiliation in a country with high expectations.

The All Blacks had however won (42-19) the first test match against Ireland in Auckland, under the interim of former Ireland coach Joe Schmidt, in whom some commentators see an ideal successor to Foster.

Foster will likely have to explain himself in the coming days to the board of directors of the Federation, which last year extended his contract until next year's World Cup, a decision which had caused many reviews.

Earlier on Sunday, an Ian Foster press conference was canceled without explanation.

Just after the match on Saturday evening, the 57-year-old coach refused to comment on his future.

The New Zealanders will play in August and September the Rugby Championship, which pits the major national teams of the southern hemisphere (Australia, Argentina, South Africa, New Zealand) each year.

They will start with two tests at world champions South Africa on August 6 and 13.

The team was so far supposed to have a week off before leaving for South Africa.

© 2022 AFP