Former All Blacks winger Jeff Wilson believes that Dave Rennie is testing out one positional selection with the sole purpose of deploying it against the Springboks.
Following the three Nations Championship matches this July, Rennie and his squad will embark on a tour of South Africa where they will face each of the United Rugby Championship franchises as well as three Tests against the Boks in the Republic, with a fourth taking place in Baltimore.
In his first two games as All Blacks head coach, Rennie has fielded Ardie Savea in the number eight jersey, Luke Jacobson in the seven, with Peter Lakai completing the trio in the first game and Wallace Sititi in the second. Sititi came off the bench in the first Test while Anton Segner did so in the second.
Tupou Vaa’i enters All Blacks’ back-row discussion
However, there was an intriguing twist to the make-up of the back-row during the clash against the Azzurri as lock Tupou Vaa’i switched to the loose trio in the latter stages of the match when Josh Lord replaced Savea.
After the match, Rennie said that the coaching staff weighed up selecting Vaa’i at blindside flanker against the French the week before, but the Chiefs man was ruled out through injury for the clash.
Vaa’i started in that position under both Ian Foster and Scott Robertson and is clearly an option for Rennie in the role, too, but Marshall has his reservations.
“I can understand why they would want to put him there, absolutely. It gives you some real firepower in your lineout. No doubt about it, and he’s a good athlete,” he said on Sky Sport NZ’s Breakdown show.
“But in my mind, he’s so world-class at lock. He was the standout player and had been for the All Blacks for a couple of years. That’s where his energy levels are really, really good and I think he understands the mindset of where he positionally needs to be on the field at lock.
“Loosies now is such a different role. You’ve got to distribute him much more, be able to play in the outside channels. I don’t think that’s in his DNA. Not that he can’t adjust. So for me, I’d leave him at lock.
“I would have Wallace Sititi at number eight with Peter Lakai and Ardie Savea on the flanks. I know that’s not giving us height in the lineout, but Wallace can be used as a lineout option.”
Specific ploy for the Springboks
Fellow former All Black Wilson is all for the ploy though as he believes it’s being trialled for the purpose of the Test matches against the Springboks with Vaa’i giving more size to the back-row. Furthermore, he hopes that Rennie will explore a 6-2 bench split, in favour of the forwards, at some point.
Foster deployed that tactic once, against the Springboks at Twickenham before the 2023 Rugby World Cup, while Robertson resisted the urge during his tenure.
“I think it’s just a specific tactic to take on South Africa and I like it,” Wilson said of selecting Vaa’i at flanker.
“More size, for me it’s a straight-out bigger body. Now there’s areas of the game where, like you say, all of a sudden you lose something that a Peter Lakai has or Wallace Sititi or Luke Jacobson, and there’ll be some very, very good players who miss out. It does also change the makeup of how we look at our bench.
“We’ve also got to explore the 6-2 bench at some point as well. But for me, I like the idea. I want to see it. He got a taste of it, and we saw some really nice signs. So I wouldn’t be surprised if we see it.”
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Ardie Savea is not a number eight
Finally, Marshall expanded on his view that Savea shouldn’t be the All Blacks number eight.
“I want to see a genuine out-and-out number eight. Ardie is not that. He’s a hybrid,” he said.
“In the first two test matches this year, he has not come off the back of a scrum once. Not one carry off the back. And there’s nothing more fearsome to a first five and a flanker out there, I can tell you, than a powerful number eight coming off and all of a sudden the defence has to adjust and adapt.
“Wallace Sititi can do that. He started to do that inaccurately, yes, because he’s a bit rusty yesterday in the Test, and that’s where the balance has got to go to. That’s why I want to make that back row look like that.”