{"id":521838,"date":"2026-07-12T04:16:14","date_gmt":"2026-07-12T04:16:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/521838\/"},"modified":"2026-07-12T04:16:14","modified_gmt":"2026-07-12T04:16:14","slug":"all-blacks-coach-dave-rennie-its-a-pass-mark-but-well-need-to-do-better-next-week","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/521838\/","title":{"rendered":"All Blacks coach Dave Rennie: ‘It’s a pass mark, but we’ll need to do better next week’"},"content":{"rendered":"

Coach Dave Rennie was satisfied with Saturday’s victory over Italy, but he knows the All Blacks will need to be more ruthless if they’re to beat an in-form Ireland next weekend and protect their Eden Park record.<\/p>\n

“It’s a pass mark, but we’ll need to do better next week,” Rennie said.<\/p>\n

“I thought we were pretty passive defensively in the first 10 or 15 minutes, but really good beyond that. We started to get time and tackle and a lot more line speed, and so that was positive.”<\/p>\n

Leading by just four points at halftime, the All Blacks scored three tries in the first 15 minutes of the second half while Italy had a player red carded for a headbutt, effectively killing off the visitors chances of a comeback.<\/p>\n

Two of those tries were to wing Will Jordan, who bagged a hattrick on Saturday night to become the All Blacks all-time leading try scorer with 50 test tries.<\/p>\n

\"Jordie<\/p>\n

Jordie Barrett and Will Jordan of the All Blacks celebrate Jordan’s try.<\/p>\n

Kerry Marshall \/ www.photosport.nz<\/p>\n

However, the hosts struggled for continuity in the last third of the game, failing to score any more points until after the fulltime siren.<\/p>\n

Rennie was pleased with the way his side started the second half, but frustrated by the way they ended it.<\/p>\n

“I thought we were excellent after half-time, and probably disappointing in that last sort of 25 minutes where we were just loose. We just needed to be a little bit more accurate.”<\/p>\n

Rennie said the Italians, who started strongly, scored the first try of the match and were only trailing 14-10 at halftime, played like he expected them to.<\/p>\n

“We knew first half they’ll be full of energy and they’ll fill the field and it’ll be harder to break down, but second half, as you saw, there’s a lot of them down and we were able to play at a tempo that they struggle with, so it’s disappointing that we didn’t ram that home in the last sort of 20-odd minutes.”<\/p>\n

Rennie knows the All Blacks, who now have wins over France and Italy to kick off their season, will need a more clinical and ruthless performance if they’re to beat Ireland next week at Eden Park.<\/p>\n

Ireland, like New Zealand, are coming off two wins to start their Nations Championship campaign, pipping the Wallabies 33-31 last Saturday before beating Japan 36-20 this weekend.<\/p>\n

\"Sam<\/p>\n

Sam Darry on the charge for the All Blacks.<\/p>\n

Kerry Marshall \/ www.photosport.nz<\/p>\n

Rennie said the All Blacks gave Italy plenty of problems when they got their attack right and said he was pleased with the improvements the team has made on defence.<\/p>\n

“We need to be better against Ireland than we were tonight (against Italy), but it was nice having an extra seven days to prepare for this one and get a little bit of repetition.<\/p>\n

“We just felt, maybe in the first half the guys with the ball, you’ve got to look like a ball carrier when we’re going short and going backdoor and at times we look like a distributor, which makes it easier to defend.<\/p>\n

“So, little things to tidy up. We’re creating a lot. We just need to be better.”<\/p>\n

Defence coach Tana Umaga agrees and knows they’ll have to lift their performance against Ireland.<\/p>\n

“We have to improve. There’s no doubt about it,” Umaga said.<\/p>\n

“They’ve (Ireland) taken every opportunity every time they’ve come and played the All Blacks (in New Zealand), they don’t fear it.”<\/p>\n

\"Ireland's<\/p>\n

Ireland are coming off back to back wins and will be confident.<\/p>\n

AFP \/ ADRIAN DENNIS<\/p>\n

Rennie said he and the players are well aware of what’s coming in Auckland and said the All Blacks will have to be a little less obvious when on attack.<\/p>\n

“They’re a great side, Ireland. Very well cached. They’ll be pretty confident on the back of a win in Australia last week, so it’ll be a good challenge for us.<\/p>\n

“They’re a really smart defensive side and so we’re going to have to force them to make decisions.”<\/p>\n

The All Blacks will be looking to protect their 52-test unbeaten streak at Eden Park next weekend, with the hosts having not lost at the ground since 1994.<\/p>\n

Umaga said Ireland will be determined to snap that streak.<\/p>\n

“Ireland, they love breaking down firsts (and making history). We’ve got to be at the top of our game and tradition won’t get us through.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Coach Dave Rennie was satisfied with Saturday’s victory over Italy, but he knows the All Blacks will need…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":521839,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[42,43,40,38,41,39],"class_list":["post-521838","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headlines","tag-headlines","tag-news","tag-top-news","tag-top-stories","tag-topnews","tag-topstories"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/521838","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=521838"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/521838\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/521839"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=521838"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=521838"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=521838"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}