Paris (AFP) – Ian Foster grew up with faith "an important part of our family" and the New Zealand head coach has had to draw on deep reserves of that with his job at one point in doubt. New Zealand head coach Ian Foster relies on the faith imbued in him as a child to get through tough timesAdvertising Read moreNow the 58-year-old is set to lead the All Blacks into Saturday's World Cup final against South Africa. Foster has required that faith, battling through a tough four years since he replaced two-time World Cup winner Steve Hansen, for whom he was assistant coach from 2012 to 2019. Both those defeats have been avenged in this World Cup -- beating the Irish 28-24 in an engrossing quarter-final and then whipping the Pumas 44-6 in a one-sided semi-final. However, as he said earlier in the World Cup: "History is yesterday's newspaper, isn't it, not tomorrow's."

Source: Stuff October 25, 2023 01:48 UTC