{"id":495204,"date":"2026-06-25T17:41:14","date_gmt":"2026-06-25T17:41:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/495204\/"},"modified":"2026-06-25T17:41:14","modified_gmt":"2026-06-25T17:41:14","slug":"all-blacks-legend-kieran-read-questions-dave-rennies-back-row-selection","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/495204\/","title":{"rendered":"All Blacks legend Kieran Read questions Dave Rennie’s back-row selection"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"\/<\/a><\/p>\n

All Blacks legend Kieran Read is worried that there are not enough \u201cgrafters\u201d to supplement the brilliance of their star loose forwards.<\/p>\n

Dave Rennie has plenty of talented back-rowers at his disposal, led by new captain and 2023 World Rugby Player of the Year Ardie Savea.<\/p>\n

All Blacks talent in the back-row<\/p>\n

Read<\/a> also namechecked Wallace Sititi and Peter Lakai as players that have the power, athleticism and skills to produce special moments with ball in hand, but they need the workhorses to complement them.<\/p>\n

Appearing on the GBRANZ podcast, fellow New Zealand<\/a> great Justin Marshall started off the discussion by claiming that they are \u201clight in the loosies\u201d.<\/p>\n

Marshall added: \u201cI\u2019m really surprised. The only thing I can think of is with the minimal amount of loosies that they\u2019ve named is they\u2019re looking at, when he\u2019s fit, Leicester Fainga\u2019anuku playing in that jersey as a hybrid between there and centre.<\/p>\n

\u201cOtherwise, I\u2019m not convinced we\u2019ve got the firepower in that loose forward mix.\u201d<\/p>\n

Rennie<\/a> has also picked Luke Jacobson, Simon Parker and Anton Segner, who may well do the nuts and bolts at close quarters, but former number eight Read believes that the head coach could have missed a trick by leaving out the Crusaders\u2019 Ethan Blackadder.<\/p>\n

\u201cI look at that too and you go, Wallace Sititi, Ardie Savea and I think probably Lakai as well are ball carriers, so where\u2019s our grafters? Where are the guys that are going to play full-on consistently and tackle everyone?\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cSimon Parker stands out, Anton Segner is in that similar vein but untested at that top level. I think Ethan Blackadder\u2019s a little bit hard done by. If you want someone who is going to put their body on the line, [it\u2019s him].<\/p>\n

\u201cMaybe he will go to South Africa because of the bigger squad. Maybe it\u2019s just about him getting some more time under his belt and the coaches are looking for that.<\/p>\n

\u201c[He\u2019s] someone that can actually go to work and allow Ardie<\/a> to do Ardie things, which we haven\u2019t seen for six months since he\u2019s been in Japan.\u201d<\/p>\n

Damian McKenzie has become \u2018an easy target\u2019 as Kieran Read gives verdict on All Blacks star\u2019s shocker<\/a><\/p>\n

Getting the best out of Savea<\/p>\n

Read insists that it is important Rennie gets the back-row balance right, otherwise it will not get the best out of Savea.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat mix is crucial because Ardie at skipper, we want him to be playing at his highest level and you need to make sure we\u2019ve got people around him,\u201d he added.<\/a><\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s going to be interesting who they play behind Ardie. Ardie\u2019s maybe the seven and Segner\u2019s possibly the next seven in that squad, although I would say he\u2019s more inclined to be a six.\u201d<\/p>\n

READ MORE: Springboks legend calls out \u2018the one combination that is not working\u2019 for the All Blacks and wades into debate over Dave Rennie\u2019s \u2018big surprise\u2019 omission<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"All Blacks legend Kieran Read is worried that there are not enough \u201cgrafters\u201d to supplement the brilliance of…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":495205,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[1463,1464,193459,111,43,139,69,213],"class_list":["post-495204","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-sports","tag-home-page","tag-internationals","tag-kieran-read","tag-new-zealand","tag-news","tag-newzealand","tag-nz","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/495204","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=495204"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/495204\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/495205"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=495204"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=495204"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=495204"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}