VIDEO: 'We'll be better': Rennie's stark warning shot to Boks
SPOTLIGHT: All Blacks head coach Dave Rennie vowed that his team will deliver a better overall performance against the Springboks in the second Test of the Greatest Rivalry series at DHL Stadium on Saturday.
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The All Blacks outperformed the Springboks in several departments in their 33-16 dismantling of the World Champions at their spiritual home of 10Bet Ellis Park last weekend.
They outscored South Africa by five tries to one, won 14 turnovers, some at crucial stages of the game, and made more 17 passes, showing their intent to keep ball in hand.
The areas the Boks bossed the Kiwis were on attack, where they trumped their foes in the post-contact metres department (289 to 197) and ball carries (96 to 86).
At set-piece, the Boks boasted a better line-out percentage (93 percent to 79 percent) and had more territory (59 percent) and possession (51 percent).
Despite all these numbers, there’s one area in which New Zealand clearly struggled, and that’s the scrums for the majority of the match.
The All Blacks mentor made several changes to his pack, with George Bower starting in place of Ethan de Groot (out with concussion), Tupou Vaa’i moving from the side of the scrum to the second row and Simon Parker starting at No.6.
Rennie warned that his team will be better at scrum time and in other areas of their game as well in their quest to set themselves up for a historic series win.
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“We struggled to get go-forward in the contact area, especially early on when the Boks were full of energy.
“Discipline-wise, we conceded way too many soft penalties, especially early on in the game, which is disappointing. It’s something we spoke about, especially giving them easy entries into our 22, so that needs to be better.
“I think scrum-wise… we’ve spoken to World Rugby because we had a couple of issues there from our point of view, so there we will be a lot better, and that was a massive win for them [Boks] last week.
“Those are the elements we’ll be better at, and I think our energy and scramble [defence] – we held them up over the line a couple of times.
“For instance, when Malcolm lost the ball over the line. They had plenty of time in our 22, but we showed plenty of energy and heart, and we’ll need more of that.”
Touching on the game itself, Rennie said he’s aware that the Boks will be coming out guns blazing, but once again warned that his side will be up for it and produce a better performance in the Cape Town Test.
“We’re aware that the Boks will come out [firing] for a potential bounce back. They’ll obviously be very disappointed with last weekend.
“There’s been a lot of talk around how they bounced back last year [in Wellington following Eden Park defeat].
“We’ve touched on it and are well aware of it. The Springboks at their best are tough to beat anywhere, but we spoke a lot about us being better than last weekend.
“We have to lift our level because we know that the Boks will be better as well. We don’t totally focus on what the Boks can bring; we’ll mostly focus on what we can bring.”
