All Blacks team v Springboks: Five takeaways as Dave Rennie focuses on building combinations while ‘chance missed’ for bold selection experiment
All Blacks midfielder Jordie Barrett competes for a high ball against the Springboks and New Zealand head coach Dave Rennie (inset).
Following the announcement of Dave Rennie’s All Blacks team to face the Springboks this Saturday in Soweto, here are our five takeaways from his selection for Rugby’s Greatest Rivalry third Test.
The top line
With everything to play for and the series evenly poised at 1-1, Rennie has made some changes to his starting line-up for this eagerly anticipated encounter at the FNB Stadium.
Amongst the forwards, All Blacks vice-captain Codie Taylor drops out of the matchday squad with Asafo Aumua promoted to start at hooker while Samisoni Taukei’aho comes onto the replacements bench as his back-up.
It is a similar story in the back-row where Simon Parker has been axed from the run-on side and, like Taylor, there is no place on the bench for him as well with Peter Lakai named to start on the blindside flank while Wallace Siti finally gets his chance to show his ability in a Greatest Rivalry Test after he was named amongst the replacements as loose forward cover.
Meanwhile, arguably the biggest surprise from Rennie‘s selection was his decision to drop star lock Fabian Holland to the bench with Sam Darry coming in to replace him in the second-row.
Darry will pack down in the engine room alongside Tupou Vaa’i who is set to celebrate a significant milestone this weekend as he will make his 50th Test appearance for the All Blacks.
Has fatigue influenced selections?
After two gruelling Tests as well as four matches against South Africa‘s United Rugby Championship sides – the Stormers, Sharks, Bulls and Lions – one can’t help but wonder if player fatigue played a part in Rennie’s decision to rotate some of his players.
While there are no alterations to the All Blacks backline, Rennie has made some big calls amongst the forwards where Parker (blindside flank), Test centurion Taylor (hooker) and Holland have been dropped.
While Parker’s omission appears to be based on form, as he had a quiet game in Cape Town and the All Blacks looked more dangerous on attack when Lakai entered the fray in that game’s latter stages, Taylor and Holland have been at the forefront of the All Blacks’ forward onslaught in the two previous Greatest Rivalry Tests.
It must be remembered that both have returned to action on this tour after being sidelined with injuries. Taylor missed the first two games – against the Stormers and Sharks – due to a calf injury sustained in the Nations Championship win over Ireland and although he will not be involved in the matchday squad in Soweto, it could be that Rennie is merely resting him with the hope that the 35-year-old will be refreshed for the final Test in Baltimore, USA on September 12.
Meanwhile, behemoth second-row Holland spent the Highlanders’ entire Super Rugby Pacific campaign on the sidelines while recovering from a serious shoulder injury.
He has impressed in several matches on the Greatest Rivalry tour and came to the fore with an outstanding all-round performance in Cape Town and don’t be surprised if he comes out firing while refreshed off the bench in the second half on Saturday.
Clear focus on building combinations
The make-up of the All Blacks’ matchday squads during this series gives a clear indication that Rennie is focused on building continuity in his selection and trying to build combinations.
In the backline, that is clearly evident in his decision to persevere with the established Hurricanes duo of Cameron Roigard and Ruben Love as his first-choice half-back duo.
The Roigard and Love partnership has been successful so far for the All Blacks and it certainly helps that they line up regularly alongside each other at Super Rugby Pacific level.
They have been particularly effective with ball in hand and in that aspect the men in black have developed a three-man attacking axis where Damian McKenzie has dovetailed nicely with Love and Roigard.
It’s a similar situation in New Zealand’s midfield where Jordie Barrett and Quinn Tupaea are now firmly established as the team’s first choice centres and they too have been crucial in attack while they have also been solid on defence.
Meanwhile, amongst the forwards, the best example of establishing combinations has been in the back-row where captain Ardie Savea and Luke Jacobson have been the two constants in the starting line-up.
Savea and Jacobson have started all of New Zealand’s previous Tests – against France, Italy and Ireland in the Nations Championship as well as against the Boks at Ellis Park and the DHL Stadium – at number eight and on the openside flank respectively, and they will do that again this Saturday in Soweto.
Both have been brilliant on either side of the ball and the synergy in the back-row will be aided by the presence in this week’s starting XV of Lakai, who has come off the bench in the two previous Boks Tests and started alongside Savea and Jacobson against Ireland last month.
Bench spot is wasted with 6-2 disinclination
Earlier this week, former All Blacks skipper and number eight Kieran Read urged Rennie to go with a 6-2 forwards/back bench split for this encounter against Springboks but Rennie has opted to stick with the conventional 5-3 make-up on his bench.
That means that Taukei’aho, Xavier Numia, Fletcher Newell, Holland and Sititi are the five forward replacements while Kyle Preston, Anton Lienert-Brown and Josh Moorby are the backline players expected to make an impact off the bench.
Judging from their clash in Cape Town, where Moorby was also amongst the replacements but did not see any action, this was a good opportunity for Rennie to add an extra lock or back-row to his bench.
However, the likes of Patrick Tuipulotu, who came off the bench in the second Test but has subsequently been dropped, and Ethan Blackadder, who has been in superb form during the All Blacks’ midweek games, have been overlooked.
The Springboks have shown in the past that bringing an extra forward onto the bench is a genuine shot in the arm during the latter stages of matches and it appears that this was a chance missed by the men in black to something similar.
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Will the changes fix the set-piece?
The big talking point in the aftermath to the second Test at the DHL in Cape Town last week was the set-piece battle where Springboks boss Rassie Erasmus chopped and changed his front-row on the matchday.
And while the All Blacks’ forwards certainly improved in their scrummaging – after they came off second best in that department in the opening Test at Ellis Park in Johannesburg – there was big backlash from Erasmus after Rennie accused the Boks front-row of illegal tactics by walking around in the scrum, which led to their dominance in the first Greatest Rivalry clash.
While the All Blacks’ attacking play has been superior to that of the Boks – the men in black have outscored the world champions by nine tries to four so far during the series – their work in the set-piece battle has not been up to scratch.
After coming off second best in the scrum battle in the first Test against the world champions, there was some improvement in that aspect when the sides met in the rematch in Cape Town.
While Aumua will be expected to improve the All Blacks’ scrum, he will also have find his jumpers in the lineouts.
In Cape Town, Taylor missed his jumpers in the lineouts on a few occasions and Aumua was also guilty of that indiscretion at a crucial stage in the second half when New Zealand were on the attack inside South Africa’s 22.
All Blacks fans will be hoping Aumua’s darts are on target in Soweto as his selection, along with Darry’s, will be expected to improve their side’s lineout efforts.
