New Zealand legends highlight key aspects which All Blacks have to master in Nations Championship ahead of Greatest Rivalry series
Former All Blacks back-row Kieran Read and scrum-half Justin Marshall (inset).
Justin Marshall and Kieran Read have highlighted what the All Blacks must master during the Nations Championship ahead of their upcoming tour to South Africa.
Marshall and Read appeared on The Good, The Bad & Rugby podcast alongside Wallabies great Jeremy Paul and after discussing the opening round of Nations Championship Tests, focus shifted to the All Blacks’ eagerly anticipated Greatest Rivalry series against their arch-rivals the Springboks.
New Zealand will head out to South Africa in early August with the All Blacks taking on all four of the United Rugby Championship sides ahead of three clashes with the Springboks in Johannesburg (twice) and Cape Town before Baltimore hosts the fourth and final Test on September 12.
On Saturday, the All Blacks kicked off their 2026 international campaign with a narrow 34-32 triumph over France in their Nations Championship opener in Christchurch while the Springboks cruised to a 45-21 victory against England in Johannesburg.
Paul pointed out the importance of the Springboks versus All Blacks series, saying: “Going to South Africa is like a World Cup” and described the tour as “something that will go down in history. They’ll look back at this in a hundred years and there’ll be some of the greatest highlights.”
Marshall, who represented New Zealand as a scrum-half in 81 Tests between 1995 and 2005, concurred and believes it’s important for new All Blacks head coach Dave Rennie to find continuity when selecting his team over the next couple of weeks in the Tests against Italy and Ireland ahead of the men in black’s tour to South Africa.
With that in mind, Marshall feels Rennie will not make radical changes to his matchday squad for their clash against the Azzurri in Wellington on Saturday.
Keen for All Blacks to hit their straps in South Africa
“It’s going to be amazing (the Greatest Rivalry Series). It’s going to be awesome,” he said. “But, what we want is our All Black side going over there, firing on all pistons, like absolutely flying into this entire tour. Not just the Tests, but making a statement in those midweek games too, real statements.
“Because they’ll be coming out trying to hurt the All Blacks in those games, man. Like batter the sh*t out of them, and fatigue them. So, they’ll be physical, but you know, when Scott Robertson got sacked, the biggest thing was everybody went, ‘F**k now!, we got our World Cup in a couple of years, we’ve got the Greatest Rivalry tour’.
“So, all of a sudden you’ve got a brand-new coach (who) came in last week. He only had his six training runs. You’ve got a whole heap of other assistant coaches coming in, apart from Jase Ryan, the personnel’s completely changed, new messages, new mindset, and you’re starting from scratch, So, we don’t have long.
“And then you just wonder whether or not, there’s only just a little bit of tweaking and some personnel (changes) for Italy, cause we’ve got that, then Ireland, then bang, we’re in South Africa.”
Read agreed and highlighted the excellent depth which the Springboks currently have in their ranks and identified Ireland and France as other international sides who are in a similar position to the current world champions.
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“They know how to play, man. Like Ireland, same, they can mismatch because they play their structure that they play so they can come in and out,” he said. “And France, I think is, is another team. So, like those three in the top three.”
The former back-row who made 127 Test appearances for New Zealand from 2008 to 2019, emphasised how important it is for a side like the All Blacks to reach a similar level of the aforementioned teams and feels they can only achieve that goal in match situations.
‘You actually build belief through performance’
“So, like the other teams are chasing that and it’s how do you chase that? You actually build belief through performance,” he said. “Where do you get confidence from? You got to get confidence by bloody going through it. You gotta play.
“You cannot get it on the training pitch. So, that’s it, where does it come from? Get out there, see if it actually comes off when you’re doing all this work and game-plans and structures and mentalities around being dominant, ruthless, what they’re talking about, show it on the field.
“You know, no mistakes. And then you build confidence that way.”
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