All Blacks boss Dave Rennie has given his verdict on his team’s 3-1 defeat in Rugby’s Greatest Rivalry series, a loss confirmed by Saturday’s 43-28 setback versus the Springboks in Baltimore.
Rennie’s charges took a 1-0 lead when defeating South Africa 33-16 in Johannesburg on August 22, but they went on to lose the following three Test matches.
The run started in Cape Town with a 33-26 loss and was followed by a 29-24 defeat in Soweto before the series finale in the United States of America resulted in a 15-point loss.
This outcome had quickly changed the complexion of the fledgling Rennie era. The head coach, who dramatically succeeded Scott Robertson earlier this year, won his first four Test matches in charge.
“We knew it was going to be tough…”
However, he now has a three-Test losing streak to ponder heading into the October 10 Bledisloe Cup match at home to the Wallabies in Auckland.
If his post-game hot take in Baltimore is anything to go by, his post-mortem on the Greatest Rivalry series will generally be positive a year out from the start of the 2027 Rugby World Cup in Australia.
Asked for his reaction to Saturday’s six-tries-to-four defeat at the M&T Bank Stadium, Rennie replied: “Oh, look, gutted. Like, we were confident that if we got a few things right tonight we would have a good chance of winning and fell short. So yeah, disappointing from that perspective.
“From a tour point of view, I said three, four, five months ago, whenever I got appointed, that I was really excited about the tour coming here because we knew it was going to be tough, but we’d learn a lot about ourselves and we’d leave with a better understanding of our game model and tighter as a group and so on – and we’re definitely in that position.
“It’s been awesome for us, and we had a captured audience of what turned out to be 49 players. So the result hurts, but really proud of the effort, really excited about where our game’s heading and knowing that we need to be better when you play a great side like the Springboks.
“But you look at the numbers, it was a very even game tonight bar the score. We probably conceded a little bit chasing the game late but felt even with 15 to go we were right in it. So yeah, disappointed, but still really proud of the effort and feel that we’re tracking in the right direction.”
A key moment happened in the 67th minute. With the All Blacks trailing by just eight points, they were attacking with possession that stemmed from a lineout in the South Africa 22, but the opportunity to eat into the scoreboard was denied as Tupou Vaa’i daftly held onto Cameron Hanekom’s right leg when the breakdown contest was long over.
It was an act of folly spotted and penalised by referee Karl Dickson, and the salt in the wound was the sight of Kurt-Lee Arendse hot-stepping his way through the All Black cover five minutes later to score the try that settled the outcome.
“Yeah, yeah, it’s not good enough,” Rennie admitted about the silly penalties that hurt the All Black, not just in Baltimore but also in the three-Test segment in South Africa. “It just has no effect on the game either, but it’s dumb. So, yeah, we’ve got to get that sort of stuff out of the game.”
What other parts of the game did the All Blacks need to do better in the Test series finale? “I mean, high ball put us under a little bit more heat again tonight. We couldn’t grab a lot of those.
“I thought set-piece-wise was excellent, our scrum and lineout. So I thought that was a real positive, and we showed again when we can get our continuity going, we are going to score tries and I think our line breaks were even tonight.
“I thought South Africa are very good there; they’re electric and really clinical when they got their opportunities. That was probably a key point tonight.”
Rennie shrugged off the long break in first-half play caused by the technical glitch that malfunctioned the match officials’ communications set. “Look, it’s just something that probably shouldn’t happen but did happen,” he shrugged.
“I’m not sure if your comms gear goes down, you pull out the spare set, surely. So, yeah, I’m not sure why it took so long, but that’s not an excuse.”
Sifting through the series debris, Rennie made mention at his post-game media debrief about how the legendary Beauden Barrett belatedly showed his value on the pitch with a try-scoring impact off the bench in Baltimore.
“I was really, really happy with Beauden. I mean, you guys [the media] just get to see the game; we get to see his contribution daily in meetings and in training and in the leadership and he’s been excellent.
“I thought he’s played really well when he’s got his chance, and we used him more at 15. He started at 15 against the Bulls, started at 15 against the Lions and it was really strong. So, we’re fortunate. We’ve got obviously Richie (Mo’unga) and Ruben (Love), Damian (McKenzie) and Beauden, and between that, we also have our 15s covered, so we got good depth there and fortunate.”
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There was also reference to Kyle Preston, the sub scrum-half who was the sole player involved in all eight Greatest Rivalry tour matches, the four-match Test series and all four franchise matches versus the South African United Rugby Championship teams.
“Cortez Ratima probably had his nose in front prior to getting injured and he went home early in the end, and we’ve been really impressed with Kyle. He suits our game; it’s the speed to the breakdown, the quality of his pass.
“He’s got a really good running game, and he’s a reasonably solid nine. So, yeah, look, excited for him, and that’s what this tour is about. We’re learning lots about players who will be scrapping it out for a World Cup spot next year.”