New Zealand Rugby has confirmed that Ian Foster and the All Blacks are up for the Coach of Year and Team of the Year awards respectively.

The  nominees for the New Zealand Rugby awards were announced on Thursday, but the Team of the Year and New Zealand Coach of the Year categories were absent from the list.

On Thursday, NZR released a statement confirming that all four national teams (the All Blacks, Blacks Ferns, All Blacks Sevens and Black Ferns Sevens) and their respective head coaches made up the nominees for the two newly unveiled categories.

This is despite the All Blacks and the Black Ferns’ recent struggles in the Test arena.

“All teams in black that took the field in 2021 will be running for New Zealand Team of the Year, and their respective coaches nominated for ASB New Zealand Coach of the Year,” NZR’s statement said, having not listed nominees for the categories.

This means Foster (All Blacks) and Glenn Moore (Black Ferns) will go up against Clark Laidlaw (All Black Sevens) and Olympic gold medal winning Black Ferns Sevens co-coaches Cory Sweeney and Allan Bunting, who are favourites.