Ian Foster says the All Blacks have been "tapping" Joe Schmidt's knowledge of the Ireland rugby team over the past year. The former Ireland head coach joined the All Blacks staff last year and was promoted to attack coach 14 months ago. Schmidt has been involved at the Rugby World Cup as New Zealand lost to France in the opening game and then beaten Namibia, Italy and Uruguay.
"His mindset is, as is mine, about what we do well and making sure we nail that," Foster said regarding Schmidt.
"It's not so much a matter of micro-analysing them to the tenth degree that we get hung up and dampen our own game a little bit.
"He knows the Irish well but that's information that we've been tapping in to the last 12 months, and getting his nous in and refining how we play."
8 September 2023; New Zealand head coach Ian Foster, left, with attacking coach Joe Schmidt before the 2023 Rugby World Cup Pool A match between France and New Zealand at the Stade de France in Paris, France. Photo by Harry Murphy/Sportsfile
Ireland meet the All Blacks in a Rugby World Cup quarter-final on Saturday night, a repeat of the last-eight game from the 2019 tournament when New Zealand won 46-14.
"There's a difference between your scouting planning and your actual planning when you know you're playing them," said Foster.
"When you know you're playing them 100 per cent you are looking at their trends the last two or three weeks and pulling all that apart and trying to see how it fits with what we knew earlier.
"Look, we know them pretty well and they know us pretty well and there's no doubt that both teams will try and surprise around the edges, but the game's going to be about a discipline defensively. It's going to be about intensity at the breakdown and body height. And winning corners and stuff like that.
"We've got a pretty clear idea about the strengths they bring but seeing them play live helped confirm some of those things. Basically, it's just a layer of the painting that you add on as you watch more and more games as the year goes on."
16 July 2022; Ireland players, from left, Joey Carbery, Peter O’Mahony, James Lowe, Rob Herring, Ryan Baird, Andrew Porter, Cian Healy and Robbie Henshaw celebrate with the cup after the Steinlager Series match between the New Zealand and Ireland at Sky Stadium in Wellington, New Zealand. Photo by Brendan Moran/Sportsfile
Last year, Ireland defeated the All Blacks for the first time on New Zealand soil as they won the tour series 2-1.
"Every player has got different key motivating points and sometimes you don't have to change that," said Foster.
"It's OK for some people to take losses more personal than others. There is no doubt that they believe when they came to New Zealand, they said it at the time, that they took something from us and it was a massive achievement for them to win on New Zealand soil. Which it was. But there's been a lot of water go under the bridge since then.
"The fact it is Ireland, playing well, on top of their game, world number one, makes the challenge nice and simple. They have got their game pretty well organised, well sorted. On a massive winning streak. Obviously, got a clear goal to create history for themselves in this tournament and probably are playing accordingly.
"They're got a group of players, this is probably their moment, if they're ever going to win a World Cup, they will probably feel like it's now."
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