Sir John Kirwan: All Blacks losses ‘not a coaching issue’ amid Scott Robertson question but admits Dave Rennie’s side must beat Wallabies
New All Blacks head coach Dave Rennie and former boss Scott Robertson.
Sir John Kirwan insists that the series defeat to the Springboks should not alter the perception of Dave Rennie’s start as All Blacks head coach.
After overcoming South Africa in Johannesburg in Test one of Rugby’s Greatest Rivalry series, New Zealand succumbed to three successive losses as they went down 3-1.
They were in with a shout in every match, however, and the Kiwis are playing with a verve and a style not seen since the 2023 Rugby World Cup.
The All Blacks will now look towards the Bledisloe Cup against the Wallabies and the northern leg of the Nations Championship where they will face Wales, Scotland and England.
Could NZ Rugby be having regrets?
Kirwan insists that everyone is behind Rennie, who took over from Scott Robertson in March, after being asked on the Rivals podcast if another reversal could lead to some doubts around New Zealand Rugby’s decision to change the head coach.
“Everyone, including the players, are happy. There’s a direction in the team that we all believe in. I think the general public believe in Dave Rennie, I think the players believe in Dave Rennie,” he said.
“I don’t think it was a coaching issue. The amazing thing about that South African side if you look at it, they’ve been in situations like on Saturday for the past three or four years as a team and they know how to deal with that pressure.
“A couple of our guys have made mistakes under that pressure which they’ll learn from.
“There was a couple of selection things where people will say: ‘Should Rieko have been on the bench or should he have played on the left wing? Should we have played a few players?’
“If we can continue this direction, I think we’ll be really hard to beat. Going into next year, there will be two sides that will be unbeaten, besides probably a rare mental moment where we lose.”
Despite giving his fervent backing to Rennie, Kirwan did admit that the All Blacks need to get results between now and the end of the year if the “pressure” is to remain off the coaching group.
‘Two best teams in the world’
“For me, the team’s heading in the right direction. If both teams can play with that intensity, around the world, even in Europe, they’re saying they’re the two best teams in the world,” he said.
“Everyone’s really happy with Dave. He won’t be happy, the players won’t be happy, we need to regroup – we’ve got Australia now.
“We need to keep winning for the pressure to go away and for Dave to stay relaxed in his job.”
Given that he has just started, Rennie is trying to find his best team and combinations and, after seven Tests in charge, Kirwan states that now is the time to settle on a few more partnerships.
“For me, New Zealand has to sort out their second-row. I think we need a locking combo. Great sides have combinations, their nine and 10, their four and five, and amazing loose forwards,” he added.
“What we need to do is settle on a couple of locks that are going to lock us through the next 12 months, injury or illness aside.
“Josh Lord and Fabian [Holland], maybe I would go, ‘let’s do that’.
“We’ve got to settle on what might look like our 23 and we need to do that this November and over this Bledisloe Cup series, but I think we’re heading in the right direction, we just need to settle on a couple of those combination things.”
