Dave Rennie reflects on 10 changes against Wales
INTERVIEW: All Blacks head coach Dave Rennie has held his ground when it comes to team selection following their historic 28-35 defeat against Wales in Cardiff.
Over 55 thousand people witnessed Steve Tandy’s Wales overcome the All Blacks at the Principality Stadium in Cardiff, where the hosts were forced to make 346 tackles compared to the All Blacks’ 134.
For the final 25 minutes, Wales were camped deep inside their 22, holding the All Blacks up over the line on several occasions.
Rennie, speaking to media post-match in Cardiff, doubled down on his selections for this Nations Championship contest, after making ten changes from last weekend’s victory over Scotland.
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“No, we had a good enough side on the field tonight to win, and I think if you look at the stats, we had plenty of opportunities,” Rennie explained.
“So those guys created a lot of chances, and we just weren’t clinical enough, and they were very good defensively.
So, no, I have no regrets about the side that we picked. As I talked about previously, there’s really good competition with places, there’s not a lot between certain positions.”
“The expectation is whoever wears the jersey bars up, but yeah, as I said before, when you underperform, it’s not just about the players. We’ll have a look at everything we do.”
The 62-year-old All Blacks head coach gave credit to Wales, who defended expertly and passionately throughout the whole contest.
“Oh, I’m massively disappointed. We started both halves poorly, conceded 14 points quickly and just felt a little bit disconnected.
“We had plenty of possession, plenty of territory, and plenty of opportunity to score where we could have squeezed them up to pick them off, and we need to be a lot better than that.
“But yeah, give credit to Wales. They were really clinical, and they got their chances, and then they defended for massive amounts of periods, and so they were the better side tonight.”
By Henry Lee @RugbyPass
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