Dave Rennie is set to include a classic bolter in his All Blacks tour of South Africa for the Greatest Rivalry tour, according to reports.
The head coach is set to name a 44-man squad for the first tour of the Republic in more than 30 years, and while he is expected to retain much of the 34 players who were selected for the Nations Championship, there is space for him to test the depth and further reward Super Rugby Pacific form.
Beauden Barrett, Kyle Preston and Simon Parker didn’t feature for New Zealand in the Tests against France, Italy and Ireland but are expected to board the flight, as is Rieko Ioane, who was called into the squad ahead of the clash with Ireland.
That leaves Rennie and fellow All Blacks selectors, Neil Barnes and Sir Graham Henry, with nine further spots to fill and one of those will go to a real bolter according to reports.
All Blacks’ back-row bolter
Post.co.nz reports that Semisi Tupou Ta’eiloa will be included in the Greatest Rivalry squad after the back-rower signed a deal with New Zealand Rugby following the collapse of Moana Pasifika.
The 22-year-old is reportedly high on the shortlist of all of the Kiwi Super Rugby Pacific teams, with the Highlanders being the obvious suitors, with him playing for Southland in the NPC. However, the Crusaders, Chiefs, Hurricanes and Blues have all lost loose forwards following the conclusion of the 2026 season.
Tupou Ta’eiloa was one of the standout performers for Moana over the past two seasons, with his shifts in the number eight jersey in 2025 keeping Ardie Savea on the side of the scrum. According to the report, the All Blacks‘ coaches believe that with further conditioning, he could reach an even higher level.
The now club-less back-rower impressed on the gain-line for Moana in 2026, racking up 182 post-contact metres in Super Rugby, ranking him in the top ten for the statistic despite playing at least one game fewer than all of the eight above him and ranking fifth overall among the forwards.
His selection would add further intrigue to the make-up of the All Blacks’ loose trio, particularly after underwhelming performances in the Nations Championship from the likes of Wallace Sititi and Peter Lakai. The latter started against France in the opener and came off the bench versus Ireland, and whilst he scored a try against Les Bleus, he wasn’t nearly as impactful as he was for the Hurricanes.
Sititi’s form and Bomb Squad selection
As for Sititi, he featured from the bench against France and started against Italy but was dropped from the matchday 23 for the Eden Park showdown versus Ireland. Rennie was rather forthright after naming the team to face the Irish, stating that the Chiefs star was not up to standard against the Azzurri.
“It’s fair to say he wasn’t at his best last weekend,” he said. “He was pretty good off the bench the week before and there’s a lot of competition for places there.
“He will play a lot of footy for us this year, but he’s got a reasonably clear message around what we need to see out of him and I’m really happy with the response we’ve got from him so far this week.”
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Rennie has stated that the All Blacks’ coaching team’s preference is for Savea to be a fixture in the number eight jersey, but Tupou Ta’eiloa’s selection could point to more flexibility.
Furthermore, the head coach has stated that he will buck the trend of traditional 5-3 bench splits, which could play in Tupou Ta’eilou’s favour. His explosiveness and physicality would be a real asset off the bench.
Savea is also set to be managed during the tour of South Africa and the Moana star could be tasked with filling his void against the United Rugby Championship franchises.