Ex-All Blacks hooker James Parsons believes that Dave Rennie and his set of players have brought the magic back to New Zealand rugby following their impressive July campaign.
They were in disarray at the start of the year following the sacking of head coach Scott Robertson, who received criticism for his more conservative approach to the game.
Rennie has since taken over and the 62-year-old has given his side more license to move the ball, which has paid dividends in the Nations Championship.
Impressive Nations Championship
They defeated France, Italy and Ireland over successive weekends, scoring at least five tries in every match, and now look forward to huge four Tests against the world champion Springboks.
“I found myself sitting there with a little bit of nostalgia, it felt like when you were eight or nine years old and you’re watching Cullen,” Parsons said on the Aotearoa Rugby Pod.
“Watching the way [Damian] McKenzie played, the way Ardie [Savea] played, Tupou Vaa’i, Jordie [Barrett] – the whole squad to be fair – it felt this was a group of players that is inspiring the next generation.
“I still fondly look back to that ’96 tour when the All Blacks won [in South Africa]. This team’s on to a climb and it’s really exciting.”
Parsons was joined on the show by former Crusaders scrum-half Bryn Hall, who agreed with the ex-hooker and then made a bold prediction ahead of the Greatest Rivalry series.
“It’s bringing people back I believe. The talk around rugby now is you want to go and watch an All Black game because of the way they are playing,” Hall said.
“I think the brand of rugby, I’m enjoying it, and I’m going to put it out there right now; I seriously think we’re going to run them off their feet.
“I think that’s the way we’re going to beat them. Their scrum, their set-piece, everything that comes with the Springboks – they are the best team in the world – but the way they are playing… I’m pretty excited to go to South Africa.
“Before the Nations Championship, I was like, ‘it’s going to be a tough series for us’, and it still will be, but I think we’ve got enough there to run them off their feet.”
Hall clarified he does not believe the All Blacks will thrash the Springboks but that, with the way they are playing under Rennie, the tourists will cause them problems with their up tempo rugby.
All Blacks to play ‘high octane rugby’
“It’s not going to be a big margin… we’re going to play a high octane level of rugby. We’ve got a good balance, we did 24 kicks on the weekend which is very good in terms of what we want to see game management-wise, but we’re going to run them,” he added.
Although there are evidently areas of improvement for the All Blacks, their try-scoring ability is not one of them, as they showed in their dominant victory over Ireland.
“If you think about the hot start with Razor and the crew, missing all those opportunities. Remember we were talking about, ‘man, in South Africa, you can’t miss those opportunities’,” Parsons said.
“I think that’s the difference, which is the ability to take the points on offer. Apart from the [Luke] Jacobson yellow card, it was looking like it was going to be a big score.
“That yellow card certainly brought Ireland back into the game and relieved a lot of that pressure.”