Rennie pinpoints areas of concern for All Blacks ahead of third Test
REACTION: All Blacks head coach Dave Rennie highlighted key areas he feels his side should fix ahead of the third Test of the Greatest Rivalry series against the Springboks at FNB Stadium this coming Saturday.
Rennie suffered his first defeat as All Blacks coach on Saturday, as the Springboks got one back to level the series 1-1 with a 33-26 win at DHL Stadium.
There were areas of the game in which the All Blacks were excellent, especially on attack, as they outscored their counterparts by four tries to three, finding space out wide with relative ease at times.
One area where things didn’t go that well was at set-piece, especially the line-out.
New Zealand lost three line-out balls in key areas of the field, with Eben Etzebeth being a menace by contesting in the air, which denied New Zealand clean ball to attack with, which is something they thrive on.
“We had 18 line-outs and won 15, although a couple of those were a bit scrappy,” Rennie said.
“Obviously the Boks had a pretty good [disruption] plan, and we had to adjust how they’re defending our line-out, so yes, it’s a work-on.”
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Rennie elaborated on the other areas of their game that will be a work-on before the third Test, which will set up a decider in Baltimore, USA, in two weeks and also highlighted areas he feels where they can nullify the Springboks
“Continuity is such a big part of our game; I thought we carried and cleaned better. The speed of the ball is important to us.
“It’s hard to get gainline [dominance] against South Africa early in the match when they’ve got a big wall lined up in front of you.
“Angus [Gardner] is the type of referee who manages the breakdown a lot; he spends a lot of time telling the guys to get out and so on, so they were able to slow a bit of our ball down too.
“The speed of the ball is massive for us; we will have to be able to deal with their kicking game which is excellent.
“We’ve got a plan [to nullify that]; we’ve got guys coming back. They were able to sneak around the side and contest some balls, which gave them some continuity, and that put some pressure on us.
“We can deal with that; they kick a lot of balls, and that opens up counterattack opportunities. I reckon it’s really small margins – for all the pressure we were under we only lost by seven [points].
“What we know is we can create scoring opportunities, so we have to be more clinical and deny them opportunities down at our end of the field and deal with that ball in the air.”
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Rennie admitted that another slow start was a key factor in the defeat to the world champions.
“We might get him [Ardie Savea] to win a toss so we can kick off,” Rennie said jokingly.
“Look, they got field position and an early line-out.
“They mauled strongly and got behind us with a lot of big men on playing top. We just got to do a better job.
“There were various times where they went multi-phase [on attack] inside our 22, and our boys stood up in the tackle, which led to turnovers.
“You just got to do that every time. You get two shoulders into the tackles to stop their go-forward momentum, but they were very clinical in the finish tonight.”
Captain Ardie Savea echoed Rennie’s sentiments but vowed that the All Blacks will respond stronger in the third Test.
“It’s always a physical game against the Springboks. Like Rens [Dave Rennie] said, they came out firing with a quick start, and one can’t let the Boks get ahead like that,” Savea said.
“But then again, the way we responded in those tight moments, I think the boys hung in there and almost stole the game away.
“We just got to fix up those areas of our game and not let the Springboks get into our 22 and rack points up in threes to put [scoreboard] pressure on us.
“We’ll go back to the drawing board on Monday and bounce back.”
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Regarding the kicking game, Rennie explained his reasoning for why his side opted to use the boot more and how he felt they were rewarded for it.
“We wanted to kick a little bit more because there are opportunities to turn them around and find grass.
“When they kick it back, it can open the game up a little bit. They’re very good when they’ve got a big wall in front of you from broken field.
“I guess against a team like South Africa you want to kick more to break open the game a little bit, ideally grass and applying pressure.
“We might have cracked across at times, but that’s the sort of stuff that’s allowing us to pull defenders in and beat them on the edge, and when we did that we scored.
“I think that’s a positive part of our game.”
