Rennie's All Blacks ready to front up to 'massive' challenge
‘MASSIVE’
With that one word, All Black coach Dave Rennie revealed the enormity of the challenge his team faces when they start their Rugby’s Greatest Rivalry tour against the Stormers in Cape Town on Friday.
New Zealand will face a fired-up, highly physical Stormers side packed with players eager to impress Springbok coach Rassie Erasmus.
In this match and the next two, against the Sharks and Bulls, he also has to manage the task of integrating uncapped and young talent like Siale Lauaki and Josh Jacomb into the high-pressure environment of a safari in the Republic.
Some of the Stormers players will be highly motivated and driven to impress Springbok management and earn a national recall,
Players like Warrick Gelant, Evan Roos, Deon Fourie (just back from a long injury lay-off), Neethling Fouché, Ntuthuko Mchunu and André-Hugo Venter will add massive impetus to the Stormers’ cause.
Rennie also has to experiment with captaincy (naming Patrick Tuipulotu to lead), while key leadership figures are rested (Ardie Savea) or recovering.
(WATCH as All Black coach Dave Rennie speaks about the ‘massive’ challenge of fronting up to brutally physical South African teams…..)
“It is massive,” Rennie told Jan de Koning about the opening match of the six-week, eight-game trip.
“We’re in the country that is holding the World Cup, back-to-back champions.
“This [South Africa] is a proud rugby nation.”
The other big challenge is that a substantial number of All Blacks have not played against South African opposition in the Republic.
“A lot of our players have not played a lot of footy in South Africa, some not for a while and some never, since the SA teams headed north and are out of Super Rugby.
“It is a massive challenge, but it is exciting.
“We will play strong sides in front of reasonably hostile crowds.
“These are challenging environments. There are the time zones we had to deal with and then altitude later in the tour.
“There are several things a lot of our players hadn’t experienced recently.”
Apart from the obvious ‘excitement’ around touring in SA, there is also the competition for places in the Test team, which will add to the intensity and anticipation ahead of the Test series.
“We have been in Cape Town for almost a week now, and it is a great place to start the tour.
“We are up against a side that was competitive in the URC and will be excited about a potential international scalp.”
Those All Blacks running out in Cape Town on Friday also get a ‘leg-up’ in the race for starting places in the Test team, when the Springboks host the All Blacks at Ellis Park later this month.
“We want them to perform well and apply pressure [on the selectors].
“The guys who aren’t playing have to wait four days [for their chance].”
@JanDKrugby
@rugby365com
