{"id":526895,"date":"2026-07-15T06:57:09","date_gmt":"2026-07-15T06:57:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/526895\/"},"modified":"2026-07-15T06:57:09","modified_gmt":"2026-07-15T06:57:09","slug":"all-blacks-v-ireland-dave-rennie-weighs-bold-blindside-move-for-ireland-eden-park-test","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/526895\/","title":{"rendered":"All Blacks v Ireland: Dave Rennie weighs bold blindside move for Ireland Eden Park test"},"content":{"rendered":"

In his two-year All Blacks tenure, Scott Robertson<\/a> settled on Chiefs loose forward Simon Parker to fulfill the desire for a sizeable, combative presence among his back-row contingent.<\/p>\n

Parker is yet to be sighted in Rennie\u2019s<\/a> first two All Blacks tests, though, with Peter Lakai and Wallace Sititi preferred to start at No 6 alongside Luke Jacobson and Ardie Savea.<\/p>\n

Lakai, with his prominent ball-carrying and breakdown ability, shone in the tense season-opener against France in Dunedin<\/a>, but then wasn\u2019t required against Italy in Wellington<\/a>, where Sititi struggled with his handling and therefore delivered a disappointing performance.<\/p>\n

For Ireland at Eden Park on Saturday night<\/a>, Rennie may promote a third candidate in as many weeks by overlooking Lakai and Sititi for starting roles to instead favour beefing up his forward pack by switching Tupou Vaa\u2019i from lock to blindside \u2013 and recalling Blues captain Patrick Tuipulotu for his first appearance of the test season at lock.<\/p>\n

Vaa\u2019i featured at No 6 in Ian Foster<\/a> and Robertson\u2019s respective national regimes but he has played his best rugby for the All Blacks at lock. His last start at blindside for the All Blacks was in the 29-23 loss to the Pumas in Buenos Aires in August<\/a> when he was among three players yellow-carded.<\/p>\n

While Vaa\u2019i gives the All Blacks added size in the loose trio and lineout height, Rennie would be sacrificing speed to the breakdown and off the scrum on defence, particularly compared with Lakai.<\/p>\n

Selecting Vaa\u2019i at blindside at Tuipulotu at lock for Ireland would acknowledge the need for vastly improved ball carriers in the forward pack. This was evident in the first half against Italy last week, when the All Blacks struggled to win the collisions and the breakdown battle, before adjusting after halftime.<\/p>\n

Rennie considered using Vaa\u2019i in the first test of the year at blindside against France but he was unavailable, due to a concussion suffered in the Super Rugby Pacific final.<\/p>\n

Shannon Frizell\u2019s return from Japan will be on Rennie\u2019s radar but, like Richie Mo\u2019unga, the former bruising All Blacks blindside, who has not played test rugby since the 2023 World Cup<\/a>, is ineligible for selection at this stage until the Bledisloe Cup battles in October<\/a>, unless he is called in as an injury replacement for the South African tour<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Starting Vaa\u2019i at blindside and Tuipulotu at lock, possibly alongside Chiefs lock Josh Lord, would allow Rennie to stack his bench with two loose forwards, the likes of Lakai, Anton Segner and Sititi, with a view to lifting the pace and tempo in the second half to challenge Ireland\u2019s conditioning in their final game of their season.<\/p>\n

\"AllAll Blacks coach Dave Rennie faces tough selection choices ahead of this weekend’s test against Ireland at Eden Park. Photo \/ Photosport<\/p>\n

The alternative option could be to start Segner at No 6 after his debut off the bench last week. <\/p>\n

Rennie also faces difficult decisions<\/a> in his front-row rotation, with the All Blacks expected to target Ireland\u2019s scrum, and in the back three, where shoulder injuries have hit wingers Leroy Carter and Fehi Fineanganofo<\/a>, to underline the fine line call between Josh Moorby<\/a> and Caleb Clarke to start on the left wing.<\/p>\n

Moorby impressed on test debut last week by setting up tries for Cam Roigard<\/a> and Will Jordan with his pace and anticipation.<\/p>\n

Clarke\u2019s contrasting power and aerial abilities may be preferred, though, to counter expectations for Ireland to test the All Blacks\u2019 vulnerabilities in the air.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s a lot of competition for places. Based on performances over the last couple of weeks, we\u2019ll make some calls around that,\u201d Rennie said. \u201cThere will be some really unlucky people missing out because guys have fronted pretty well for us.\u201d<\/p>\n

Jordie Barrett, after a standout performance against Italy<\/a>, did not train on Tuesday due to a leg issue. The All Blacks are, however, adamant they are taking a cautious approach and that Barrett will feature this weekend.<\/p>\n

Provided he is fit, Barrett is expected to rekindle his midfield partnership with Quinn Tupaea<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Minimal changes are likely elsewhere, as the All Blacks prepare for the biggest threat to Eden Park\u2019s 32-year, 52-match unbeaten status<\/a> since the Springboks, the World Cup champions, were seen off last September.<\/p>\n

Possible All Blacks team:<\/p>\n

Ethan de Groot, Codie Taylor, Fletcher Newell, Patrick Tuipulotu, Josh Lord, Tupou Vaa\u2019i, Luke Jacobson, Ardie Savea (c), Cam Roigard, Ruben Love, Caleb Clarke, Jordie Barrett, Quinn Tupaea, Will Jordan, Damian McKenzie<\/p>\n

Reserves: Asafo Aumua, Xavier Numia, Tyrel Lomax, Anton Segner\/Wallace Sititi, Peter Lakai, Kyle Preston, Anton Lienert-Brown, Josh Moorby <\/p>\n

Liam Napier<\/a> is a Senior Sports Journalist and Rugby Correspondent for the New Zealand Herald. He is a co-host of the Rugby Direct podcast<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"In his two-year All Blacks tenure, Scott Robertson settled on Chiefs loose forward Simon Parker to fulfill the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":526896,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[249915,5263,8136,212449,32131,9635,8142,2082,8019,2683,111,139,69,8143,138234,1534,213,765,25592],"class_list":["post-526895","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-sports","tag-710pm","tag-all","tag-blacks","tag-blindside","tag-bold","tag-dave","tag-eden","tag-for","tag-ireland","tag-move","tag-new-zealand","tag-newzealand","tag-nz","tag-park","tag-rennie","tag-saturday","tag-sports","tag-test","tag-weighs"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/526895","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=526895"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/526895\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/526896"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=526895"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=526895"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=526895"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}