MY ACCOUNT
All Blacks head coach Ian Foster expects Argentina to have even greater emotion in the wake of Diego Maradona’s death.
Arguably the best footballer of all-time, Maradona died at the age of 60 after a suspected heart attack on Wednesday.
An icon in Argentina after leading the country to the 1986 World Cup title, three days of official mourning were declared in the nation following Maradona’s death.
Meanwhile, the Pumas are preparing to face New Zealand in the Tri Nations in Newcastle on Saturday.
Foster said there could be added emotion for Argentina, who beat the All Blacks for the first time in a stunning upset earlier this month.
“It’s hard to say from our perspective, but I mean clearly it’s a sad day for Argentina as a nation,” he told a news conference on Thursday.
“I guess all we can do is we commiserate with them, he’s an iconic sporting person and clearly had a lot of meaning for the people of Argentina so we just acknowledge that.
“Clearly when you’re going into a game you’re the next big game off the track for that country. It’s going to have some emotional appeal but that’s something that they will deal with and they will control.
“We’ve got to control our own emotions and we’ve got plenty of reasons and plenty of determination to play for our country as well and representing our people and doing what we need to do to fix up a performance two weeks ago is pretty high on our list.”
Argentina have two games left in the Tri Nations, with the Pumas, All Blacks and Wallabies all locked on six points in the table.
