Bad blood between Wallabies coach Joe Schmidt and All Blacks coach Scott Robertson adds even more spice to rivalry

Further, Foster believed that an early appointment would be a distraction to the All Blacks’ campaign – with the implication that Robertson was putting his own ambitions ahead of the team.

Rightly or wrongly, that’s what Foster believed. And Schmidt, who was Foster’s right-hand man inside the All Blacks set-up at the time, was clearly of the same view.

Given Schmidt’s cautious approach to public relations, it’s a surprise the quote even made it to print – but there it is, on page 229 of Foster’s book, sitting like a little time bomb that was always going to detonate once Schmidt accepted the Wallabies job.

The use of the word “integrity” is particularly loaded, and might also explain why Schmidt and Robertson did not end up working together when NZ Rugby tried to pair them up in 2022, during the period when Foster’s job was clearly on the line after the series loss to Ireland and a subsequent defeat to the Springboks in Mbombela.

Remarkably, the two coaches will now go head-to-head at Eden Park in the first Bledisloe Test, during a Rugby Championship that has already played out like a soap opera.

Colleague Iain Payten’s piece on the Sydney crowd turning feral during the Argentina Test last weekend captured the tournament so far – it’s been an emotional journey, and the final chapters haven’t even been written yet.

It’s that very unpredictability that gives the Wallabies a better-than-usual chance of victory at Eden Park, where the Brumbies memorably ended their own long drought in March.

The more you look at the All Blacks’ performances over the past five years, the more obvious it becomes that the Eden Park record – now 51 Test wins in a row – is a statistical oddity that will end sooner rather than later.

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The vulnerabilities they have as a team will, at some point, override their capacity to go deep into the well for performances to protect that record – even if it isn’t against the Wallabies next weekend.

Schmidt would love to be the coach who finally storms the “fortress”. Next weekend won’t be just about him – or Robertson.

But if you believe the bloke in the other coaching box engaged in a bit of self-promotion at the expense of the team you were coaching at the time, you wouldn’t be human if you didn’t have some extra motivation.

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