New Zealand head coach Dave Rennie has made four changes to his side for Saturday’s meeting with Ireland in Auckland (8.10am Irish time), with the All Blacks coach moving Tupou Vaa’i to the back row in a bid to beef up his pack.
Just as Ireland moved Tadhg Beirne to the back row in their starting XV, Rennie has put the Chiefs lock into blindside flanker, with the intention of going after Ireland’s setpiece.
With the Chiefs forward moving back to the 6 jersey, Rennie has brought two fresh second rows into his starting team, with Josh Lord and the experienced Patrick Tuipulotu coming in, and Wallace Sititi and Sam Darry both dropping out of the matchday 23.
Quinn Tupaea also comes back into the starting side, joining former Leinster centre Jordie Barrett in midfield, with Billy Proctor making way.
Wing Leroy Carter misses out due to injury as expected after picking up a knock against the Italians, but Josh Moorby, who impressed off the bench on his debut in Wellington last week, is handed his first start in the 11 shirt.
“He was so impressive. I wouldn’t say I was surprised, I was really pleased for him,” Rennie said of the Hurricanes winger (below).
“He’s been excellent all year and for him to come on quite early and play with that sort of confidence was awesome, so it gives us a lot of confidence to throw him out there. He trained superbly and he’s just a really good footballer.
“A massive engine, massive work rate and he’s looking forward to his first start.”
Through two games in charge of New Zealand, Rennie has given licence for his team to attack and move the ball at will.
The All Blacks have beaten Ireland three times in row in recent seasons, and the setpiece has been a key factor in each of those, going after the Irish scrum and lineout which has seen Andy Farrell’s side struggle to get their attacking game going.
And the former Australia boss gave an honest account of how he wants his team to go after Ireland at Eden Park on Saturday.
“It gives us a bigger lineout, a bigger pack,” re replied, when asked about shifting Vaa’i to the back row.
“So it’s a big pack for us and so we’re well aware of the importance of setpiece.
“Ireland are very good, they’re very disciplined and they’ll put you in the corner and they’ll hurt you down there so we’ve picked a pack that we think can compete and hopefully give us an edge.
“We know where they’re coming [after us].
“They’ve got a really good kicking game and they’ll apply pressure through that. There’s a lot of detail within their attack and they’ve got a real good short passing game and they’re prepared to go multi-phase.”
Rennie (above) says his side have taken lessons from last week’s win against Italy, where they lacked patience in attack.
This week, they’ll be looking to go through Ireland, rather than around them.
“Our job’s to get them out of their comfort zone, ensure through how we defend that they’re below their best and try and profit off that and we’re going to have to bar up big time at setpiece and we’re pretty confident with the group we’ve got that we can apply pressure there.
“I mean it’s a case of us being really clinical. Our mindset’s been excellent.
“We’ve got to be prepared to play through them and squeeze them up a bit and pick them off as opposed to, you know, try and go wide at every opportunity so they’re a really good side and we’re aware of that,” he added.
New Zealand were 26-13 winners against Ireland in Chicago last year
With Rennie so early in his tenure as All Blacks boss, Ireland head coach Andy Farrell has been keen to put as much pressure as he can on this weekend’s opponents, leaning into the fact that the All Blacks are unbeaten at Eden Park since 1994, and how his team want to be the side that breaks that streak.
But Rennie said he isn’t feeling the “pressure” of maintaining that 52-game unbeaten run in Auckland.
“I wouldn’t say pressure,” the New Zealand boss said of the Eden Park factor.
“We’re well aware of the threats and they’re an excellent side who will have genuine confidence going into the game.
“So yeah, clearly we’ve talked about the record at Eden Park and the record is longer than most of the ages of the players on our team.
“So we’re well aware of that, we’re really excited to play there. It’s against a really high quality opposition and we’re building. We know we need to be better than we were last week but we’ve prepared well and looking forward to it.”
New Zealand: Damian McKenzie; Will Jordan, Quinn Tupaea, Jordie Barrett, Josh Moorby; Ruben Love, Cam Roigard; Ethan de Groot, Codie Taylor, Tyrel Lomax; Josh Lord, Patrick Tuipulotu; Tupou Vaa’i, Luke Jacobson, Ardie Savea (capt)
Replacements: Asafo Aumua, Xavier Numia, Fletcher Newell, Anton Segner, Peter Lakai, Cortez Ratima, Anton Lienert-Brown, Caleb Clarke.
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