Dave Rennie issues ‘clear message’ to Wallace Sititi after dropping All Blacks star for Ireland showdown
Dropped All Blacks back-rower Wallace Sititi and head coach Dave Rennie.
Dave Rennie has told Wallace Sititi in no uncertain terms what he expects from him after the back-rower was dropped from the All Blacks squad.
The Chiefs star was one of the surprise omissions from the 23 after the head coach named his team to take on Ireland at Eden Park this weekend.
Despite New Zealand’s comfortable victory over Italy, Sititi had a poor day at the office after making a number of errors during the game.
That has ultimately cost him his place in the All Blacks side for their clash against the Irishmen in Auckland and Rennie was honest about why he had been axed.
‘Wasn’t at his best’
“It’s fair to say he wasn’t at his best last weekend,” he told reporters. “He was pretty good off the bench the week before and there’s a lot of competition for places there.
“He will play a lot of footy for us this year, but he’s got a reasonably clear message around what we need to see out of him and I’m really happy with the response we’ve got from him so far this week.”
Sititi’s task has been made harder by Rennie’s decision to move captain Ardie Savea to number eight – the 23-year-old’s favourite position.
The previous All Blacks head coach honcho, Scott Robertson, shifted Savea to openside flanker last year, but he is now back at the base of the scrum.
Asked whether he sees the former World Rugby Player of the Year’s long-term future at number eight, Rennie responded: “Predominantly. We’ve got a lot of guys that can play eight but we like Ardie there.
“He leads our side but he’s got genuine impact all over the park and on both sides of the ball.
“I talk about six, seven or eight, they’re all a little bit different and it’s not like your seven has to be a fetcher.
“Luke’s [Jacobson] been great for us, he’s been physical, so we just like the balance of what we’ve got there. We’ve got a genuine lineout option in Tupes, we’ve got graft in Luke and got an athlete who’s making big impacts on both sides of the ball in Ardie, so it’s a good mix.”
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All Blacks back five changes
Savea and Jacobson once again start in the All Blacks back-row this weekend and they have been joined by Tupou Vaa’i, who completes the loose trio.
The decision to move Vaa’i to blindside has enabled Rennie to bring Patrick Tuipulotu into the second-row where he will play his first Test match of the season.
“He’s had a lot of little niggles and that, it’s been a challenging year for him, he’s constantly had niggles and maybe never really been 100 per cent,” the head coach said.
“We could have pushed him out there last week but we just wanted to give him one more week. He had a really good training week last week and this week to give him confidence to go out and go full throttle.
“He’s a big man, has genuine impact and it will be nice for him to string some Tests together.
“We’ve got a few options there and we think Fabian [Holland] will be likely for that South African tour, so it’s just great to get Paddy out there and he’s really looking forward to it.”
