{"id":916775,"date":"2026-10-05T08:40:09","date_gmt":"2026-10-05T08:40:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/916775\/"},"modified":"2026-10-05T08:40:09","modified_gmt":"2026-10-05T08:40:09","slug":"dave-rennies-verdict-on-all-blacks-high-ball-tactics-weve-got-to-be-better","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/916775\/","title":{"rendered":"Dave Rennie’s verdict on All Blacks high ball tactics: ‘We’ve got to be better’"},"content":{"rendered":"

Dave Rennie says that the All Blacks won\u2019t ditch their aerial game tactics despite its failings against the Springboks<\/a> in Rugby\u2019s Greatest Rivalry series.<\/p>\n

New Zealand have adopted the tactic of running back to catch high balls instead of onto the ball like most other nations. This after World Rugby outlawed escorts in 2024, which created a greater contest for possession.<\/p>\n

The ploy wasn\u2019t overly effective against South Africa, with the Boks able to gain a major advantage in the aerial battle.<\/p>\n

Despite the All Blacks\u2019 struggles under the high ball, Rennie says that they will continue to deploy the tactic going forward after its effectiveness in the July Nations Championship matches.<\/p>\n

New Zealand\u2019s style of play<\/p>\n

New Zealand\u2019s<\/a> style of play has changed significantly since Rennie<\/a> took over from Scott Robertson earlier this year with a greater emphasis on retaining possession and playing with tempo in attack.<\/p>\n

After seven Test matches<\/a>, the head coach says that the team \u2018aren\u2019t far away\u2019 from coming to terms with the new style of play and structures.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ve put a lot of emphasis around conditioning because we want to play a real high-tempo game and so we\u2019ve tried to build that over time,\u201d Rennie told Newstalk ZB\u2019s Weekend Sport with Jason Pine.<\/p>\n

\u201cCertainly when we were in South Africa, you get to the end of a seven-week campaign and you\u2019re probably trying to pull back a little bit.<\/p>\n

\u201cObviously, we had a lot of travel, especially leading into the Baltimore game. So I think conditioning-wise we\u2019ve moved in the right direction, but we\u2019ve put a lot of time into skill set because that\u2019s a big part of our game. If you\u2019re going to play, you need to be really accurate.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe got tested aerially against the Springboks and they do it a little bit differently to most sides. In July, the teams that we played would kick longer and you\u2019re able to cover that and get back and connect, whereas these are very short and you\u2019re almost standing under a ball trying to compete there.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe had lots of conversations around what that looks like to get more success in that area and then obviously set-piece was vital against the South Africans and how we can be better there. So lots of learnings, but the mindset and how we want the players to play, we\u2019ve been really rap with. They\u2019ve really embraced the style that we want to play, and we understand there\u2019s a bit of risk-reward.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou use the ball a lot more; you\u2019re not always going to get it right, but the thinking is if we can play at that pace, we\u2019re going to hurt teams and we\u2019ve just got to get a little bit more accurate.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u2018Devastating\u2019 setback as All Blacks lose Ruben Love for the remainder of the international season<\/a><\/p>\n

All Blacks\u2019 high-ball tactics<\/p>\n

Commenting on the side\u2019s tactics under the high ball, Rennie said<\/a>: \u201cA few years ago, it was a pretty simple process because you could have three or four guys running a screen which denied chasers the opportunity to get up and compete. So the idea is that you get a high ball that\u2019s uncontested and you\u2019re catching 95% of those and then you\u2019ve got a group of guys in front of the ball who can then look after the ruck and you can play a lot of tempo off that.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe way things have changed now, anyone, it\u2019s ironic, you can be running back even if you try and get out of the way, but you run in the path of someone coming from a different direction, you can get penalised.<\/p>\n

All Blacks challenge World Rugby to \u2018simplify\u2019 the scrum as Dave Rennie calls for laws to be \u2018deleted\u2019<\/a><\/p>\n

\u201cSo the concept of retreating back is that you can actually escort and catch the ball. So generally, when the kicks are a little bit deeper, it allows you to then feed the full-back or 10 who is back and then we get the player to immediately try and move the ball away from that congested area. But when the kicks are shorter, it\u2019s a little bit harder for the guys at the back to come forward anyway. So it\u2019s a combination of both.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf it\u2019s over-kicked a little bit, you want the guys coming forward. I still think guys retreating gives us a chance to stop their chases getting directly at the ball and if we can link and connect from there, then we get to use the ball immediately.\u201d<\/p>\n

Want more from Planet Rugby? Add us as a preferred source on Google to your favourites list<\/a> for world-class coverage you can trust.<\/p>\n

Selection of back-three players<\/p>\n

The coach was asked how much a player\u2019s aerial ability plays into his selection, particularly when it comes to the back three.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe do a huge amount of work on it and people may question that, but it\u2019s a part of a game, but it\u2019s not the only part of the game. We\u2019re picking outside backs for a number of reasons,\u201d he explained.<\/p>\n

\u201cSome of that is their defensive ability or their ability to finish, their work ethic to get all around the field and invariably, we play Will Jordan a lot on the wing; he\u2019s played a lot of full-back, which is a real asset, I believe.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf you look at the guys we have used on the wing, they\u2019re on both sides of the park \u2013 so it suits our game. It is definitely part of it and it\u2019s an area that the boys put a lot of time into. We are committed; we understand you play teams like South Africa. You\u2019re going to get tested, so we\u2019ve got to be better.\u201d<\/p>\n

READ MORE:\u00a0Ben Smith: Springboks \u2018manipulated\u2019 the All Blacks in a part of the game that has become a lot harder than when I was playing<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Dave Rennie says that the All Blacks won\u2019t ditch their aerial game tactics despite its failings against the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":916776,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[567],"tags":[64,63,228143,818,1182,1736,44,760,85],"class_list":["post-916775","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-rugby","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-dave-rennie","tag-home-page","tag-internationals","tag-new-zealand","tag-news","tag-rugby","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/916775","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=916775"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/916775\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/916776"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=916775"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=916775"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=916775"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}