{"id":546244,"date":"2026-07-27T13:12:09","date_gmt":"2026-07-27T13:12:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/546244\/"},"modified":"2026-07-27T13:12:09","modified_gmt":"2026-07-27T13:12:09","slug":"dave-rennies-point-of-difference-verdict-on-all-blacks-back-row-selections-and-duplessis-kirifi-snub","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/546244\/","title":{"rendered":"Dave Rennie’s ‘point of difference’ verdict on All Blacks back-row selections and Du’Plessis Kirifi snub"},"content":{"rendered":"

Dave Rennie has revealed why Du\u2019Plessis Kirifi has been overlooked for the touring squad to South Africa<\/a> for the Rugby\u2019s Greatest Rivalry series.<\/p>\n

The Hurricanes co-captain was a regular feature for Scott Robertson last year but hasn\u2019t got a look-in under the new head coach despite his strong performances en route to winning Super Rugby Pacific.<\/p>\n

Instead, Rennie has stuck with the likes of Ardie Savea, Anton Segner, Luke Jacobson, Wallace Sititi, Simon Park and Peter Lakai as his loose forwards, who did service during the Nations Championship while adding Crusaders star Ethan Blackadder and calling up the uncapped Semisi Tupou Ta\u2019eiloa.<\/p>\n

Why Du\u2019Plessis Kirifi was overlooked<\/p>\n

While the head coach admits that Kirifi is a \u2018good player\u2019 and performed well for the \u2018Canes in 2026, he explained that there is sufficient cover for the openside flanker position.<\/p>\n

\u201cI spoke to a handful of guys, so I\u2019m not going to go into those in massive detail, but as you\u2019ve seen with the guys that we used in the Nations Championship, those boys fronted well for us,\u201d the All Blacks<\/a> boss explained.<\/p>\n

\u201cLuke, Anton, Peter Lakai, and Ardie can all play seven, and Dups is a good player; he had a good season, but there are good players who have missed the squad, not just him.<\/p>\n

\u201cHis job is to go away, keep working hard, and be ready if an opportunity arises. I\u2019d be surprised if we don\u2019t call someone in at some stage.\u201d<\/p>\n

Dave Rennie: Why Ardie Savea will arrive late in South Africa and who will be the All Blacks\u2019 stand-in tour captain<\/a><\/p>\n

Ethan Blackadder\u2019s recall to the All Blacks<\/p>\n

One player who has been called into the squad after missing the Nations Championship<\/a> is Crusaders\u2019 back-rower Blackadder. Rennie<\/a> explains that he and Moana Pasifika star Ta\u2019eiloa bring a \u2018point of difference\u2019 that the squad didn\u2019t have in July.<\/p>\n

He hailed the work rate of the \u2018Saders man who will be an option at number eight and on the side of the scrum in South Africa. While Blackadder played regularly for Robertson in 2024, he was overlooked last year due to his injury struggles.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe has obviously had a lot of injuries over time, but when he played this year, he was really impressive. He has a massive engine, physically, so we think he offers a point of difference around that,\u201d Rennie said about the 31-year-old.<\/p>\n

Ex-All Black adamant New Zealand concern can be \u2018easily fixed\u2019 with Springboks \u2018big boys\u2019 looming<\/a><\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ve spoken about Semisi Ta\u2019eiloa before, but he has got a genuine point of difference. We haven\u2019t got that big, powerful loose forward like him, and he\u2019s really destructive defensively, and he carried Moana on his back a lot this year, so we think he has a point of difference as well.\u201d<\/p>\n

Want more from Planet Rugby? Add us as a preferred source on Google to your favourites list<\/a> for world-class coverage you can trust.<\/p>\n

Dave Rennie on uncapped looseforward Semisi Tupou Ta\u2019eiloa<\/p>\n

Rennie is particularly pleased for Ta\u2019eiloa, who shone for Moana in 2026 despite the club\u2019s struggles on and off the pitch.<\/p>\n

\u201cI watched less Super Rugby last year, to be fair, when I was in Japan and not realising I was going to be coaching the All Blacks, but I watched a lot this year,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n

\u201cLook, Ardie speaks really highly of him. It\u2019s exciting.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s a really good story in it that someone who maybe is playing in a side that\u2019s battling can stand out the way he did. So we\u2019re really pleased for him.\u201d<\/p>\n

READ MORE:\u00a0All Blacks squad: Dave Rennie names three uncapped players for Greatest Rivalry series as key men make timely returns<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Dave Rennie has revealed why Du\u2019Plessis Kirifi has been overlooked for the touring squad to South Africa for…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":546245,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[169306,42,1463,1464,111,43,1466,40,38,41,39],"class_list":["post-546244","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headlines","tag-dave-rennie","tag-headlines","tag-home-page","tag-internationals","tag-new-zealand","tag-news","tag-south-africa","tag-top-news","tag-top-stories","tag-topnews","tag-topstories"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/546244","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=546244"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/546244\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/546245"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=546244"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=546244"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=546244"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}