New All Blacks coach Dave Rennie has been known to put his players through notorious training sessions in the days after their game-day effort levels failed to measure up – and so everyone with ambitions of making the national team should consider themselves on notice.
That scrutiny begins in earnest tomorrow when the Chiefs host the Highlanders in Hamilton because Rennie will be sitting in the stand watching anyone in the frame with interest – his final task at the end of a whirlwind week in New Zealand before he flies back to Japan the following day
It may provide the match with an extra edge beyond its importance in the competition, with the Chiefs, currently second on the Super Rugby Pacific table, hoping to make it seven wins in a row, and the Highlanders, currently seventh, hoping for a win to keep their playoffs ambitions alive.
The Chiefs’ All Blacks incumbents – Samisoni Taukei’aho, Tupou Vaa’i, Simon Parker, Luke Jacobson, Wallace Sititi and Damian McKenzie – may feel the weight of Rennie’s gaze as they run out to start. Brodie McAlister, Samipeni Finau and Cortez Ratima may be feeling a little more pressure as they prepare to enter the match off the bench.
For the Highlanders, only loosehead prop Ethan de Groot and midfielder Timoci Tavatavanawai are incumbent All Blacks, although back-up halfback Folau Fakatava, one of only two backs on his team's bench, and outside backs Caleb Tangitau and Jacob Ratumaitavuki-Kneepkens are knocking on the proverbial door.
Tangitau, superb again last weekend in scoring a try against the Waratahs in Dunedin after two weeks out with injury, must be in the frame as an up-and-coming wing, along with opposition No.11 Kyren Taumoefalau, the former Moana Pasifika player who moved south in a bid to lift his chances of making the All Blacks.
Rennie, in New Zealand on a planning and scouting mission with his management group, including new attack coach Mike Blair, during the Kobe Steelers’ break in the Japanese League One competition, has made no secret of his extra interest in his prospective players’ performances when the intensity ramps up in the playoffs.
A quirk of the competition this year is the New Zealand teams playing only each other for the final three weeks which means playoffs intensity has arrived early.
Rennie will presumably watch a recording of the third-placed Blues against the top-seeded Hurricanes at Eden Park on Saturday night (the fourth-placed Crusaders have a bye).
He will name his first squad of the year – of 34 players – on June 22.
It will obviously be based on talent but also a willingness to work. One of Rennie’s non-negotiables is the requirement to get off the ground and back in the game after contact.
The time taken for a player to do so is noted by his analysts and reported back to him.
A gruelling “extras” session on a Monday or Tuesday is scheduled for those who fail to measure up.
Most do not return as extras the following week.
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