Following the announcement of the All Blacks’ 34-man squad for their eagerly anticipated Bledisloe Cup Tests against the Wallabies, here’s our winners and losers from Dave Rennie’s selection.
New Zealand will host Australia in the opening Bledisloe Cup Test at Eden Park in Auckland on October 10 before the trans-Tasman rivals meet in the rematch at Accor Stadium in Sydney seven days later.
So without further ado, here are our winners and losers from Rennie‘s All Blacks squad.
Winners
Codie Taylor
With first-choice All Blacks skipper Ardie Savea ruled out due to injury, Rennie has handed the leadership role to Taylor after he also captained the team in their previous Test against the Springboks in Baltimore.
At the age of 35, the experienced hooker is in the twilight of his career and there were some questions surrounding his form during the Greatest Rivalry series against the Boks before he was dropped from the men in black’s matchday squad for the third Test in Soweto.
However, Taylor was recalled for the final Test in Baltimore and although the men in black suffered their third successive defeat against the world champions, he led his team admirably.
And although former All Blacks captain Scott Barrett has been recalled to the squad, Rennie resisted the temptation to restore him to the captaincy and is instead backing Taylor’s leadership skills for the upcoming Tests against their trans-Tasman rivals.
Scott Barrett
While his days as All Blacks captain appear to be over, Barrett is still highly rated in New Zealand and is set to make his return to the international arena after making his last Test appearance against Wales at the end of 2025.
The 32-year-old initially took a sabbatical and was set to play for the Crusaders during the latter stages of their 2026 Super Rugby Pacific campaign but that did not happen due to a bulging disc in his back that was putting pressure on a nerve.
He subsequently had surgery which ruled him out of the All Blacks’ Nations Championship campaign and Rugby’s Greatest Rivalry tour before making a successful return to action for Taranaki in a National Provincial Championship (NPC) game against Hawke’s Bay this past weekend.
Barrett is one of four locks named in Rennie’s squad – alongside Fabian Holland, Tupou Vaa’i and Josh Lord – who already has already made 89 Test appearances. With such vast experience under his belt, don’t be surprised if he is also recalled to the All Blacks’ starting line-up for the first Bledisloe Cup Test in Auckland.
Shannon Frizell
The 32-year-old’s return to the international arena will be welcomed by All Blacks fans as Frizell’s absence has been keenly felt since his last Test appearance, which was against South Africa in the 2023 Rugby World Cup final in France.
Since then, Frizell has plied his trade with Japan Rugby League One outfit Toshiba Brave Lupus before he returned to New Zealand this year and he has been shining in the NPC with Tasman.
While Frizell was in Japan, no player has nailed down New Zealand’s blindside flanker position with the likes of Simon Parker, Tupou Vaa’i and Luke Jacobson all having stints in the number six jersey at international level.
Standing at 1,95 metres tall, Frizell is a handy lineout option, brings great physicality to the cause on attack and defence and his experience should also boost the All Blacks cause.
Anton Segner
Just a day after it was announced that the German-born back-row forward had re-signed with New Zealand Rugby, the Blues and Auckland through to the end of 2031, Segner has been recalled to the All Blacks squad.
Segner was one of the All Blacks’ best players during the early stages of Rugby’s Greatest Rivalry tour of South Africa and caught the eye with excellent performances in victories over the Stormers and Bulls.
He was selected on the replacements bench for the opening Test against the Springboks but was a late withdrawal ahead of that clash due to acute inflammatory arthritis in his ankle and that injury brought his involvement in the tour to a premature end.
However, he has made a full recovery and the impact he made during New Zealand’s Nations Championship Tests against Italy, Ireland and in those two tour games in South Africa obviously impressed Rennie and the 25-year-old has been rewarded with a deserved recall.
Richie Mo’unga and Josh Jacomb
With Ruben Love ruled out through injury and Damian McKenzie and Beauden Barrett named amongst the outside backs, Mo’unga and Jacomb have been selected as the two fly-halves in this All Blacks squad.
Mo’unga is an experienced playmaker who made his All Blacks Test comeback against the Boks in Baltimore after his return from a three-year stint in Japan with Toshiba Brave Lupus following the 2023 Rugby World Cup.
Although his presence did not have the desired effect against the world champions, the 32-year-old is one of the best fly-halves in the international arena and is the favourite to wear the black number 10 jersey against Australia at Eden Park.
Meanwhile, Jacomb, despite being the only player yet to earn a Test cap, is rewarded with another call-up after impressing in two tour matches during the recent trip to South Africa.
Losers
Ruben Love
Love is one of several players who misses out on selection due to injury following the All Blacks’ recent gruelling Rugby’s Greatest Rivalry series against the Springboks.
After shining for the Hurricanes during their triumphant Super Rugby Pacific campaign, Rennie put his faith in the promising playmaker as New Zealand’s first-choice fly-half and he wore the number 10 jersey in their first six Tests of the year.
However, Love was dropped for the Baltimore Test against the Boks with Mo’unga taking his spot and the 25-year-old now misses out due to an ankle ligament injury.
That injury is a definite blow to his development as an international number 10 and he will be determined to make a speedy recovery in a bid to be involved in the All Blacks’ end-of-year tour to Europe in November.
Other injured players
The following players were not considered for the Bledisloe Cup Tests due to injuries: Savea (shoulder), Patrick Tuipulotu (calf), Jacobson (elbow), Anton Lienert-Brown (knee), Billy Proctor (shoulder), Caleb Clarke (shoulder) and Ollie Norris (knee).
Of the aforementioned list, Savea’s injury is arguably the biggest setback as he is one of the leading players in the international game and his absence was keenly felt in that Test defeat against the Boks in Baltimore.
Of the other crocked players, the likes of Tuipulotu, Jacobson, Lienert-Brown and Clarke are, like Savea, also seasoned campaigners who seldom let the men in black down while Proctor and Norris, despite being less experienced, have also performed admirably at Test level.
Sam Darry
The Blues second-row can consider himself unlucky not to be included in this All Blacks squad after he formed an all-Blues lock combination with Tuipulotu in their last Test against the Springboks.
With 12 Test appearances made since his All Blacks debut against Fiji in 2024, the 26-year-old is one of New Zealand’s rising stars and his omission is surprising as he possesses a good all-round skill-set.
Darry did well during the Nations Championship encounters against France and Italy before being dropped for their next three Tests but was recalled for the final two Greatest Rivalry fixtures against the Boks.
Despite shining in the third Test in Soweto, he did not impress in the final one in Baltimore and it looks like he misses out on selection due to his performance in that clash.
Want more from Planet Rugby? Add us as a preferred source on Google to your favourites list for world-class coverage you can trust.
Other discarded players
After being involved in the recent Greatest Rivalry tour of South Africa and Test series against the Boks, there are several other players who have also missed out on selection for the Bledisloe Cup Tests along with Darry.
They are: Siale Lauaki, Semisi Tupou Ta’eiloa, Emoni Narawa, Bradley Slater, Jamie Hannah, Saula Ma’u and Noah Hotham.
Lauaki, Ta’eiloa and Narawa were included in the original squad for the Greatest Rivalry tour but they did not grab the opportunities presented to them in their appearances against the South African URC teams.
It was a similar story for Slater, Hannah, Ma’u and Hotham as they joined the tour as injury replacements which means they are towards the bottom rung of the pecking order and their omissions were not surprising.
READ MORE: Fehi Fineanganofo makes decision on All Blacks future ahead of 2027 World Cup