All Blacks expect Wallabies to combine Rennie’s ‘physicality’ with northern style

When the All Blacks face off with old rivals Australia on Sunday, they expect the Wallabies to have some new tricks under Dave Rennie.

The Wallabies, like the All Blacks, will be playing their first Test under a new coach when the two sides meet for a Bledisloe Test in Wellington, with Kiwi Rennie now at the helm for Australia.

Having faced Rennie sides in the past thanks to his time coaching in Super Rugby, both players and coaches have a bit of an understanding about his philosophies around the game.

“I guess they’ll come here with a real physical mindset around the contact areas,” All Blacks assistant coach John Plumtree said.

“And they’ll probably play [with the ball] a lot – that’s one of Rennie’s basic principles of the game, really.”

All Blacks hooker Codie Taylor warned just because they know a bit about Rennie, that won’t make things any easier.

“With him, he’s been with the Chiefs and Glasgow but he’s got a couple of other coaches behind him like the English attack coach [Scott Wisemantel] from last year,” Taylor said.

“I think they’ll want to bring in a good mix of the way they play rugby in the North and the way Rennie likes to play,” Taylor said.

“It helps but there’s still a lot of question marks in terms of what they’ll bring.”