{"id":570784,"date":"2026-08-16T13:58:09","date_gmt":"2026-08-16T13:58:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/570784\/"},"modified":"2026-08-16T13:58:09","modified_gmt":"2026-08-16T13:58:09","slug":"all-blacks-scrum-lomax-and-numia-boost-selection-claims-after-bulls-win-liam-napier","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/570784\/","title":{"rendered":"All Blacks scrum: Lomax and Numia boost selection claims after Bulls win \u2013 Liam Napier"},"content":{"rendered":"

The All Blacks can only play the opposition they are given and there\u2019s no doubt they have improved several specific pressure points since their scratchy opening win in Cape Town, but coach Dave Rennie<\/a> fully understands the levels to this game.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe know the intensity level, the quality, we\u2019re going to come up against next week is three, four, five, fold higher,\u201d Rennie said after the Bulls victory<\/a>. \u201cWe\u2019ve played reasonably well on tour and we know we need to up the ante.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe had a lot of opportunities tonight to play on top of the Bulls<\/a> and force defenders to make decisions. It was almost like we were training for the Springboks, who will come a lot harder defensively. It\u2019s good for us. We\u2019ve now got a game at altitude. The guys have an appreciation of that. We\u2019ll be better for it.\u201d<\/p>\n

Rennie confirmed a small number of test spots were up for grabs against the Bulls. Dynamic loose forwards Peter Lakai and Anton Segner<\/a>, the latter with a man-of-the-match performance from openside flanker, are likely to have cemented their places on the bench for the Boks.<\/p>\n

\"SomeSome of the New Zealand players who sone in action against the Bulls: Tyrell Lomax (from left), Beauden Barrett, Josh Moorby and Anton Segner. Photos \/ Photosport, SmartFrame<\/p>\n

Josh Moorby\u2019s two tries, elusive qualities and rugby smarts are expected to lock his presence in the starting back three, particularly with injury clouds continuing to hover over Damian McKenzie (ankle)<\/a> and Will Jordan (back)<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Influential halfback Cam Roigard<\/a> appears on track to return for the Boks after sitting it out with a calf strain to this point of the tour.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere were some really good performances that will put pressure on us from a selection point of view,\u201d Rennie said. \u201cIt\u2019s nice to have seven days to get over that. There were a handful of positions that were going to be decided based on tonight\u2019s performance.<\/p>\n

\u201cPeter Lakai was excellent until we took him off.<\/a> Anton was massive. Those guys are applying a lot of pressure.<\/p>\n

\u201cJosh started the last test against Ireland<\/a> and played the Italian game<\/a> off the bench. He was very good. Leroy [Carter] was very strong out on the wing. I\u2019d like him to dive a little earlier next time and maybe score on the line rather than two metres over it.<\/p>\n

\u201cWill and Cam got through a bit of training yesterday. We\u2019re pretty confident they\u2019re going to be right next week. Both of them we want to have a full week of training but they\u2019re certainly ticking enough boxes.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re probably less confident about Damian but still think he\u2019s a good chance to play on the weekend. We\u2019ll get a little bit into him tomorrow and hopefully he can train well on Tuesday. The expectation is all three of those guys will be available.\u201d<\/p>\n

The supremely dominant scrum performance against the Bulls<\/a>, highlighted by an early steamrolling shunt while the All Blacks defended their line, enhanced Tyrel Lomax and Xavier Numia\u2019s<\/a> credentials too.<\/p>\n

\"HalfbackHalfback Cortez Ratima prepares to feed the scrum as the All Blacks forwards g to work. Photo \/ SmartFrame<\/p>\n

Codie Taylor<\/a>, sporting stitches on his cheek after scoring two tries in his return from injury while captaining the All Blacks for the first time, praised the shifts the forward pack has made across their three tour matches. He, too, though, knows the Boks will apply furnace-level heat through their vaunted set-piece strengths<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m sure they\u2019re going to be asking a lot more questions come next week,\u201d Taylor said. \u201cFrom where we started with the Stormers<\/a> and having built our way through these club games, I feel we\u2019ve made some great strides as a forward pack.<\/p>\n

\u201cBy no means are we the finished product. There\u2019s going to be so much more we can work on. It\u2019s going to get tougher, but we can be really happy and confident with the steps we\u2019re making.\u201d<\/p>\n

With the tune-up matches done and dusted, and Rennie preparing to settle on his first test team<\/a>, the gloves are about to come off.<\/p>\n

The All Blacks will be satisfied enough with their progress and their strengthened internal competition in most areas, but no one is under any illusions that the true battles await. <\/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

Listen to Elliott Smith\u2019s live commentary on Newstalk ZB Sport and iHeartRadio, or join the Alternative Commentary Collective on iHeartRadio and Radio Hauraki.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The All Blacks can only play the opposition they are given and there\u2019s no doubt they have improved…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":570785,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[74,5263,95,8136,11231,58032,2562,20409,281430,3607,111,139,254145,69,26809,36158,17879,213,6027],"class_list":["post-570784","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-sports","tag-after","tag-all","tag-and","tag-blacks","tag-boost","tag-bulls","tag-claims","tag-liam","tag-lomax","tag-napier","tag-new-zealand","tag-newzealand","tag-numia","tag-nz","tag-pretoria","tag-scrum","tag-selection","tag-sports","tag-win"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/570784","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=570784"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/570784\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/570785"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=570784"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=570784"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=570784"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}