Dave Rennie has spoken.
At a press conference in Auckland this morning the new All Blacks coach outlined the team’s path to the first Test of the year with trademark word economy punctuated by pause and punch, dropping a trail of breadcrumbs for the press pack to follow as he took questions from the floor.
It was vintage Rennie. He talks to the media like he coaches his players. He doesn’t provide the whole answer, he leaves a trail of clues. He watches you figure it out, piece it all together. He waits to see what your conclusion is: Whether you got the point he was making, or whether you missed the mark completely.
His is a teacher’s mind. His responses today did a lot of the heavy lifting but left plenty of room for the rest of us to figure out the answers. To wit: Richie Mo’unga would have been in the squad to tour South Africa, but he wouldn’t have been used in July.
Sir Graham Henry joins Dave Rennie’s All Blacks management team - Watch on TVNZ+
That said, he would have been in the group for the July tests to “get his head around a few things”, but New Zealand Rugby has said he can’t play and they won’t budge on their eligibility stance. So, they are still hoping to “get him in” and, if he was in, he might have played the first game on the South African tour to give him a chance to fight for his jersey, but he’s happy playing NPC. So, he’s not technically "in".
The conclusion must be Richie Mo’unga is in something: Their thinking. But he is not eligible, but he might be eligible one day. If there was an injury, for instance. Well, maybe.
It’s immaterial now because, when it comes to first-fives, Rennie says New Zealand “is blessed in that position”.
He wouldn’t open the notebook and tell us how he has ranked the 10s so far but did add that he is “excited to see the intensity grow in the next few weeks”. If you want to read between the lines on that, the selectors are searching for a playmaker who can manage a game under pressure and best direct a team around the park. In other words, they’re looking for the smartest and the calmest.
That’s going to add some spice to the coming month, during which Super Rugby boasts six New Zealand derby matches: including Blues v Hurricanes, Chiefs v Crusaders, Crusaders v Hurricanes, and Chiefs v Blues.
Versatility has been a catch cry for the All Blacks over the last two World Cup cycles and, while the ideological quest to find the perfect 10-15 hybrid has had some success, it has not returned the consistency of performance one may have expected. Or, maybe it’s more accurate to say it should have been expected that such a concept would have led to such glaring inconsistencies.
‘Versatility’ was a word associated with Leicester Fainga’anuku this morning, too. Rennie admitted he has been impressed by New Zealand’s most talked about utility.
“His ability to play out on the edge or at 7 gives you genuine versatility,” he told the media pack, but conceded that as an out-and-out flanker he still has work to do. When pressed on whether Fainga’anuku would be considered to wear the hallowed All Blacks 7, Rennie simply replied, “time will tell".
In terms of selection, Rennie was also clear that the ink has already dried on a number of selections for the first squad of the year. There are still spots up for grabs, and beads of sweat are likely forming on the brow of forwards coach Jason Ryan as he crosses his fingers, and a few toes, hoping his front row stocks can stay fit through the toughest part of the domestic season.
Tyrel Lomax, who 1News understands will re-sign with the Hurricanes through to 2029 when his current deal expires this year, is set for a return from injury soon.
Tamaiti Williams, who has been in hospital recently with a spinal issue, remains touch and go for the South African tour. It is a notoriously fraught time of the season for the game’s big men. It’s one of the positions Rennie referred to when he said, “we’re a couple of injuries away from being exposed in certain spots".
Rennie was at his best when discussing the short preparation time between the end of the Super Rugby competition and the first Test against France. He was unfazed by the challenge, he said.
When asked there was enough time – the team will have approximately 10 days to assemble and prepare – he simply said, “it’ll have to be".
One thing is clear, this All Blacks side will hit their first challenge of the year with a pared-back game plan that allows the team to reconnect with its historical DNA.
With a compressed preparation and a need to restore confidence among the team’s leaders and commanders, adhering to a comprehensible identity will be the foundation upon which this team can build.
“We’ll simplify,” he said. “Take some of the language out.”
If that’s a clue to anything, it’s this: They’ll pick a team that gets the basics right and can figure out the rest.
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