Ian Foster unsure on New Zealand future despite win as Edinburgh's Emiliano Boffelli shines for Argentina

New Zealand head coach Ian Foster says he has no idea if the All Blacks’ 35-23 Rugby Championship victory over South Africa will be enough for him to keep his job.
New Zealand's coach Ian Foster embraces New Zealand's scrum-half Aaron Smith as they celebrate after victory over South Africa.New Zealand's coach Ian Foster embraces New Zealand's scrum-half Aaron Smith as they celebrate after victory over South Africa.
New Zealand's coach Ian Foster embraces New Zealand's scrum-half Aaron Smith as they celebrate after victory over South Africa.

Foster is under immense pressure following last weekend’s 26-10 defeat by the Springboks to open the tournament and the summer series tour loss to Ireland, but his All Blacks team responded with a gritty victory in Johannesburg to halt a three-match slide.

Tries from Sam Cane, Samisoni Taukei'aho, David Havili and Scott Barrett helped secure the win over South Africa, who responded with scores of their own from Lukhanyo Am and Makazole Mapimpi.

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"I've got no idea. I'm just going to enjoy tonight," Foster said if the win safeguarded his position.

"There's no doubt it's been a pretty stressful time. We've been trying to find our feet as a team. The stress has been good for me, I think I lost 1 kg over the last week so a couple more weeks I'll be in good shape.

"We worked hard. It's never easy when you're coming off a couple of losses but so proud. Just so proud of the effort. It swings in roundabouts but we hung in and finished strong.

South Africa were left to lament failures in their tactical execution. “In the first half the game was quite fast, we couldn’t really force our gameplan upon them,” captain Siya Kolisi said. “They made great plans but we could’ve worked a lot harder in the first half.

“They played really well out here today and, like we always knew, they only needed a couple of moments to make it count and they definitely did. So, congrats to Sam [Cane, All Blacks captain] and his boys.”

In other match in the second round of Rugby Championship fixtures, Argentina avenged last week’s defeat by Australia by rolling over the Wallabies in San Juan.

Edinburgh winger Emiliano Boffelli shone for the Pumas, kicking diligently and scoring a try in a stunning 48-17 success as head coach Michael Cheika got one over on his old team.

With all four teams on one victory, attention turns to the next round of fixtures in two weeks’ time, with Australia hosting South Africa and Argentina travelling to New Zealand.