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All Blacks training with 14 men to practice red card scenarios for Bledisloe series

July 20, 2021
Dane Coles says that the rules are clear around contact with the head.

All Blacks coach Ian Foster has revealed he has been dishing out red cards trainings to get his side practising how to play with 14 men to prepare for the upcoming Bledisloe Cup series.

Foster revealed he recently sent Brodie Retallick off the training park last week so they could practise being a man short, much to Retallick's dismay.

"I was thinking he was going to come up and smack me because he didn't think he justified getting a red card," Foster said.

"But we work through those scenarios - and often your ability to adapt as a team is not so much dependent on your own tactics, it's actually on how the other opposition plays.

"We've learnt the last couple of years playing Aussie with 14 men is not easy to do, because they're very much a fast ruck-and-run team and eventually they'll expose that.

"The French probably didn't play that way," Foster said in reference to Wallabies winger Marika Koroibete being sent off early in Australia's 33-30 win over France on Saturday.

Koroibete's red card has since been quashed by a judiciary panel.

Foster's approach comes after the All Blacks lost 24-22 to the Wallabies in Brisbane last year in a bizarre match which saw both sides receive a red card.

A year prior, the All Blacks were also crushed by the Wallabies 47-26 in Perth when Scott Barrett was sent-off for a high tackle.

Foster said Australia will be feeling good after their 2-1 series win over Les Bleus and the All Blacks would need to prepare for their "confrontational-type game".

"They want to do a lot of stuff at the breakdown to disrupt your flow of ball and if you're not accurate there, you get into a bun-fight," he said.


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