All Blacks legend: We’ve tried to beat the Springboks at their superpowers, Dave Rennie has changed that
Aphelele Fassi of South Africa and Will Jordan of New Zealand battle for an aerial ball and an inset of All Blacks boss Dave Rennie.
The All Blacks have rediscovered their DNA under Dave Rennie, according to legendary winger Jeff Wilson.
The former outside back believes that for the past decade or so, New Zealand have tried to beat opposition teams at their ‘superpowers’ instead of focusing on their strengths.
After reflecting on the weekend’s NPC action on Sky Sports NZ’s Breakdown show, Wilson noted the pace of the matches in New Zealand and believes that the All Blacks did the same during the Nations Championship matches against France, Italy and Ireland.
All Blacks rediscover their DNA under Dave Rennie
Since taking over from Scott Robertson as head coach, Rennie has spoken a lot about the pace and tempo that the team wants to play at, and Wilson believes that, plus the skill and conditioning aspects, is where the All Blacks have had the edge over the opposition in the past.
“We’ve got back to who we are. Dave Rennie has talked about the DNA. For me, what we’ve maybe done for a number of years, probably the last 10 years, we’ve tried to beat other countries at what they’re good at, at what they’re great at – their superpowers,” he explained.
“For example, we’ve tried to dominate the South Africans physically. We’ve then tried to out-flair France, out-structure Ireland. We’re not going to beat them at their superpowers.
“We have to be great at what we’ve done so well in the past. That is speed, that is conditioning, that is skill and putting the opposition under pressure.
“Making sure that we go out and say, ‘You try and stop us rather than us focusing on stopping you’.”
“I think you are right,” former All Blacks full-back Mils Muliaina said in response.
“We’ve gone out there and tried to emulate what other teams have done and beat them at the high ball and not being smart about our game first.
“That’s probably what Rennie has done. He’s bought back, what are we all about? We go out there, and we can still do that. We can still dominate the South Africans and dominate them physically, but we’ve got to do it in a different way, in a smarter way.”
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With the All Blacks primed for four Tests against the Springboks during the Rugby’s Greatest Rivalry Series, Wilson thinks that the side doesn’t need to dominate the Springboks but instead just needs to get parity in key areas.
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Parity needed against the Springboks
If they are able to do that, then they can impose their strengths on Rassie Erasmus’ charges.
“If we get parity, that’s all we need – when I look at that,” he said.
“We go in with the mindset of trying to dominate, but if you get parity, that’ll be enough with the other skills we have.”
Former Blues and All Blacks hooker James Parsons agreed, saying: “Absolutely and you just look at the improvement of set piece even though we’ve sped it up, it’s because the opposition’s tired, so actually set piece has got easier in the sense that you’re not having that big competition at lineout time you’re not having that big competition at scrum time because of the fatigue and the way that and that attitude of wanting to play.”
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