‘Hurtful, ruthless’: All Blacks star targets team’s critics on departure from South Africa

Veteran All Blacks halfback Aaron Smith didn’t mince his words as he prepared to board the plane to South Africa, describing the criticism from the public and media in the wake of their series loss to Ireland as “hurtful , ridiculous and ruthless”.

But Smith, the 33-year-old, 105 Test halfback who will almost certainly add to his 15 appearances against the Springboks during this two-match Rugby Championship visit to the republic, also admitted that the players should take their share of responsibility. before the nadir of their first home series loss in 28 years.

The All Blacks have lost four of their last five exhibition games, dating back to the end of last year’s November tour, and are regarded as decided underdogs who face a brutal back to back against the world champions Boks in Mbombela and Johannesburg.

The focus of criticism of the side’s anemic play has fallen on head coach Ian Foster, although skipper Sam Cane also had his fair share of anti-aircraft fire. Interestingly, the only two victims were assistants John Plumtree and Brad Mooar who were fired after the Irish series, which saw Crusaders guru Jason Ryan come in.

Both Smith and his equally experienced half-partner Beauden Barrett, who also spoke to the media before embarking on the long haul to South Africa, dodged questions about the allegedly bad relationship between the All Blacks and the suits at New Zealand Rugby, exposed by former coach Steve Hansen in his incendiary radio interview on Thursday.

That’s probably understandable, given the slippery slope you’d be pitching down to shade your employers, but Smith’s response strongly confirmed that this is a back-to-wall All Blacks group.

“There’s definitely been a lot of noise from outside in the past two weeks,” Smith says. “As a group, we had a good meeting on Monday, and a lot of it is close to these are the right people in the room and we players have to do our part, get our stuff in order and do our preparation well.

“There’s nothing better than the challenge of playing South Africa in South Africa, we know what’s coming, and it’s up to us as players to own our share of it and get our own stuff right.

“The sound is the sound,” he added. “The pressure to wear the black jersey, or to coach, is great. We know that, and it is every time. We’ve had some results that weren’t to our liking, but it wasn’t for lack of effort as a group. The two days in Wellington were a positive step towards what we are going to bring out in South Africa.”

It was then asked by stuff if he sympathized with Foster and the storm of criticism that had descended on him after the defeat in Wellington, Smith gave real insight into the tense emotions at play here.

“I have a lot of love for Fozzie (Foster)… you always feel for the men in the room. You know they care about him, and about seeing a lot of the bad things about him and Sam Cane, it’s painful and it’s basically gone… it’s ridiculous how brutal it actually has been.

“I feel for them as men. We support them and it’s up to us over the next two weeks to bring a little pride back into the jersey for ourselves, but also for the people who have been under the most pressure.”

When asked if some of the criticisms had gone too far, Smith replied, “I think we can all admit that.”

(More to come)