Dave Rennie believes that the All Blacks are better than their results against the Springboks suggest.
New Zealand won the opening Rugby’s Greatest Rivalry Test match at Ellis Park in Johannesburg but went on to lose three games in succession against South Africa in Cape Town, Soweto and Baltimore, respectively.
Rennie’s attention now turns to back-to-back Bledisloe Cup matches against the Wallabies, who claimed a stunning 42-38 victory over the Springboks in Perth at the weekend.
Following the two Tests against their trans-Tasman rivals, New Zealand will then embark on the northern hemisphere leg of the Nations Championship with Tests against Scotland, Wales, England and another on finals weekend.
Disappointed All Blacks
Speaking ahead of the clash against the Wallabies, Rennie said that the team and coaches were disappointed by their efforts against South Africa and are aiming to end the year strongly.
He said as much when asked how he was judging his performances so far since taking over the job from Scott Robertson.
“Obviously, we built pretty well through July. I thought their performance against Ireland was pretty strong, and the tour of South Africa was really good for us, but it’s still disappointing,” he told Newstalk ZB’s Mike Hosking Breakfast show.
“We think we are better than the results, but you’ve got to earn it. We feel we let ourselves down a little bit and we get a chance to rectify that over the last six Tests of the year.”
This year’s Bledisloe Cup Test matches will be the first time that Rennie takes on his former employers having served as Australia’s head coach between 2020 and 2023.
Facing the Wallabies
The Wallabies head into the match off the back of a bizarre clash with South Africa, a game that Rennie kept a close eye on.
“They’re a strong side,” he said of the Wallabies.
“They’ve got a lot of guys who have been together since I was here in 2020. Maybe 10 of those guys have played the last seven years together and, you know, they’ve got 50, 60, 70 Tests over their belt.
“So that’s a reasonably experienced Wallabies side now. They’ve got some genuine X-factor and I thought they were excellent against South Africa on the weekend.
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“The score was close because they have so many players sent off late so they were pretty emphatic and it’s a really good indication to our players around how tough it’s going to be at Eden Park, so we are looking forward to it.”
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While it is still early on in his tenure in charge of the All Blacks, there is high expectations on the head coach of New Zealand, particularly from the public. Rennie says that the coaching staff aren’t resting on their laurels and are putting pressure on themselves to improve.
“Look, I think we’ve put pressure on ourselves. There’s no doubt,” he said.
“Lots of people are telling me that they love the way we’re trying to play, but I still think you need to find a way of getting results and so we’ve got to be better in that area. But there’s no doubt there’s emphasis on winning, but it’s also about how we win.
“We’re trying to grow a game that we think can win a World Cup. We show glimpses of that against the South Africans and when we did, we really challenged them. So you’ve got to do that more often, limit their opportunities. So we are constantly challenging ourselves to be better.”
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