Former All Black Stephen Donald has claimed that Super Rugby Pacific is showing the depth Dave Rennie will have to work with during the 2026 Test season.<\/p>\n
As the mid-year internationals edge nearer, with the Nations Championship kicking off in two months\u2019 time, competition for places is heating up.<\/p>\n
Plenty of players are putting their hands up, making Rennie\u2019s<\/a> job difficult as he prepares to name his squad for the games against France, Italy and Ireland next month.<\/p>\n The 62-year-old has taken over the role as All Blacks<\/a> boss after Scott Robertson was sacked following two underwhelming campaigns in charge, but Donald is positive about their chances of improving under the new head coach.<\/p>\n Donald confident about the All Blacks<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s interesting because we\u2019re starting to get to the serious part of Super Rugby. There are a lot of big derbies happening and the All Blacks contender list is long,\u201d he said on The Aftermatch with Kirst and Beav.<\/a><\/p>\n \u201cAll in all, I don\u2019t think we\u2019ve been in this strong a position for a long, long time. We\u2019ve got our All Blacks coach settled, we know exactly who\u2019s going to be helping him and I think we generally know what sort of attitude and mindset the All Blacks are going to play with, and I think it\u2019s going to be a higher pace and higher speed level.<\/p>\n \u201cWhen you start to look across Super\u2026 there are not many holes, there really isn\u2019t.\u201d<\/p>\n Donald firstly focused on the back five of the scrum, where he believes Rennie will struggle cutting it down, given the number of players that are performing well in Super Rugby.<\/a><\/p>\n \u201cYou look at the locks which in the past has been, \u2018what happens when Brodie [Retallick] and Sam [Whitelock] go?\u2019 You\u2019ve got locks absolutely falling off the trees at the moment, probably five or six you would be more than happy with if they started,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n \u201cThere are a lot of young loose forwards emerging, the Hurricanes have about four or five who will be in contention. You see Ardie Savea is coming back.<\/p>\n \u201cYou\u2019ve still got Luke Jacobson, Wallace Sititi, Samipeni Finau, the Crusaders boys and [Ethan] Blackadder, so you\u2019ve got plenty there.\u201d<\/p>\n