Murray Mexted: Springboks series will be the ‘making of Dave Rennie’s All Blacks’ after they got a ‘hell of a surprise’ in South Africa
All Blacks head coach Dave Rennie and former New Zealand number eight Murray Mexted.
Ex-All Blacks star Murray Mexted is convinced that the knowledge Dave Rennie has gleaned from the Springboks series can propel them to Rugby World Cup glory.
The 62-year-old was only appointed in March and had his first game in charge in July where they defeated France 34-32.
New Zealand have had six more Test matches since then, including four against the back-to-back world champions South Africa.
They lost that series 3-1, despite taking the first Test in Johannesburg, and Mexted believes that is has been a very useful tour.
Finding the players who are Test quality
While their weaknesses have been exposed, the former number eight insists that Rennie is now much closer to knowing which players are up to scratch and who won’t be around for the global tournament next year.
“It’s difficult… there are different levels and you only know the highest level if you have to play in it. If you’ve never played in it, you just assume you can do what you did at a lower level and I think a lot of those new All Blacks, particularly that went to South Africa, would have got a hell of a surprise,” he told the DSPN Rugby podcast with Martin Devlin.
“But now they know what the standard is and that’s the most important thing. They’re either going to target it and make it or step aside.
“There will be a lot of hard thinking going on at the moment and it’s the same for the selectors. They’re trying to work out if this guy has got the ability to lift to that level.
“If he hasn’t got the ability to do that, we’re not going to win the Rugby World Cup. I still think we can win it and I think that series in South Africa will be the making of Dave Rennie’s All Blacks side.”
The All Blacks’ next games are against the Wallabies in the Bledisloe Cup before they head to Europe for the northern leg of the Nations Championship.
They will once again be important matches as the head coach looks to find out more about his players.
Richie Mo’unga v Ruben Love
It will be particularly interesting to see what happens at fly-half with Ruben Love and Richie Mo’unga seemingly the two main competitors for the jersey.
Love was handed the reins for the first three Tests against the Springboks before Mo’unga was given an opportunity in the finale in Baltimore.
“He (Rennie) has definitely given Love plenty of room to move and Love’s played well. He didn’t necessarily shine in the last Test but he didn’t play badly and he’s obviously a player of the future… and the future might be very near,” Mexted said.
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“Richie Mo’unga has been playing at a different level and he was almost inconspicuous in that game. He did some really good things and he’s still a very good footballer, but tactical decision-making I thought was different in this game in Baltimore.
“It wasn’t as good as it’s been in the previous Test matches and some of that has to come down to an international number 10 playing in a weaker competition, and getting away with some things you don’t get away with at this level.
“There’s review going on in everybody’s mind and I think the standard is now pretty obvious – we have to lift it right across the board.
“I think we can do it by the way and I think we’ve got the coaches and the players to do it.”
