Sir John Kirwan: All Blacks need ‘heroes’ to beat the Springboks
Springboks forward Pieter-Steph du Toit and an inset of ex-All Blacks winger Sir John Kirwan.
Sir John Kirwan believes that the All Blacks will win the inaugural Rugby’s Greatest Rivalry Series but feels Dave Rennie will need ‘heroes’ to rise to the occasion.
The All Blacks and Springboks will collide three times on South African soil before the fourth and final Test match, which will take place in Baltimore, USA.
It is the first time that the men in black face off in a series against the Boks in 30 years, with the Sean Fitzpatrick-captained All Blacks claiming a historic 2-1 victory – a success the former hooker ranks higher than winning the World Cup nine years prior.
Springboks won’t be surprised by the All Blacks
That was the first time that New Zealand had managed to topple their fiercest rivals in a series in the Rainbow Nation after failing in their first six attempts back in 1928, 1949, 1960, 1970 and 1976. Despite that fact, Kirwan is confident that Rennie’s men can back up the heroics of John Hart’s charges 30 years ago.
However, he doesn’t believe that the All Blacks will be able to really surprise Rassie Erasmus’ men, having shown how they want to play in their three Nations Championship matches against France, Italy and Ireland, respectively.
“They’ll have something up their sleeve, but I think we’ve shown how we want to play,” the legendary winger who won the 1987 World Cup said on the Rugby Rivals podcast.
“When you think about South Africa, you know what their DNA will be when they get put under pressure: they’ll be kicking the high ball, putting pressure on the scrum.
“I think that there’ll be little components of the game we’ll try and surprise them, but the DNA of the All Blacks is heading in the right direction. At this level, it’s very, very hard to hide stuff nowadays, even from an organisational point of view.”
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Dave Rennie needs heroes in South Africa
Kirwan is bullish about the All Blacks’ chances in South Africa but isn’t downplaying the Springboks‘ strengths, singling out their forward pack and scrum as an area of the game where they are world leaders.
The former outside back believes that Rennie will need a full eight-man effort up front in order to achieve parity with the Boks and that will be needed if they are to win in South Africa – something the All Blacks last did in 2022 under Ian Foster.
“For us to win in South Africa, the whole forward pack needs to be absolutely exceptional. When you’re a forward, you know what’s coming in South Africa,” he said.
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“South Africa have been leading the way from a scrum and forward pack point of view in the last little while. So we’ve got to at least match that, and we’ve got to scrum incredibly well.
“We won’t win if we can’t come out of the Test series by being at least equal in that scrum. If we win the series, which I think we will, then the forward pack will have to be heroes, all eight of them.”
