{"id":593590,"date":"2026-09-08T05:26:19","date_gmt":"2026-09-08T05:26:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/593590\/"},"modified":"2026-09-08T05:26:19","modified_gmt":"2026-09-08T05:26:19","slug":"emotional-disappointment-all-blacks-rally-for-last-push-against-boks","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/593590\/","title":{"rendered":"‘Emotional disappointment’ \u2013 All Blacks rally for last push against Boks"},"content":{"rendered":"

All Blacks head coach Dave Rennie has spoken of the \u201cmassive emotional disappointment\u201d of losing the South African series 2-1 and hinted at changes this week for the fourth Test in Baltimore after a long journey from Johannesburg.<\/p>\n

The All Blacks travelled on a charter flight with the Springboks \u2013 a delay leaving the Republic and a stop off in the Canary Islands made for a total travel time of more than 24 hours \u2013 arriving in Washington DC to temperatures of 32C or more.<\/p>\n

That, and an arduous tour of South Africa featuring four club matches and three Tests, means Rennie\u2019s men will require careful handling this week. For that reason, they will have a far lighter week of preparation and train only on Tuesday and Thursday morning (local time) before travelling to Baltimore for the Test at M&T Bank Stadium, a venue that can hold more than 70,000 spectators.<\/p>\n

Asked on a media call this morning about the energy levels in the group, Rennie said: \u201cWe\u2019ve definitely got one more in us\u201d, before adding: \u201cWe didn\u2019t train today because it was really important to freshen up mentally. <\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ve had leaders\u2019 meetings but tried to give the guys the day off. There is massive emotional disappointment but there\u2019s a lot to play for in our minds. We can win this weekend and tie the series two-all and will go home knowing we\u2019re in a better spot than when we arrived.\u201d<\/p>\n

The 29-24 defeat to the Boks in Soweto<\/a> in what was the deciding Test on South African soil will have been a difficult one for Rennie and his men to process. They were again dominated by the home pack but the match could have gone the other way had a couple more goalkicks been successful and a couple more tackles made.<\/p>\n

It also took a toll injury-wise<\/a>, with skipper Ardie Savea, Quinn Tupaea and Luke Jacobson major casualties.<\/p>\n

Asked whether the unavailability of the trio would alter his thinking around selections for this week, Rennie replied: \u201cWe always thought we\u2019d make changes for the fourth Test regardless of whether we won that third one or not\u2026 to make sure we bring in guys with plenty of energy and to share the load. <\/p>\n

\"All<\/p>\n

All Blacks first-five Richie Mo’unga. (Source: Getty)<\/p>\n

\u201cObviously, the three key players missing alters a bit of that thinking as well but what we know is that we\u2019ll have a highly motivated 23 guys stripping [up] at the weekend.\u201d<\/p>\n

First-five Richie Mo\u2019unga will presumably enter the frame as a replacement for Ruben Love, who has started all six Tests this year, with flanker Ethan Blackadder a potential replacement for Jacobson. Peter Lakai or Wallace Sititi may start at No.8.<\/p>\n

Leroy Carter is ‘such a good man’<\/p>\n

An intriguing selection will be left wing. Leroy Carter has impressed hugely on this tour for his attacking spark and defence but his two missed tackles at the weekend, that led directly to two Boks\u2019 tries, were hugely costly.<\/p>\n

Fellow wing Josh Moorby was dropped after missing a tackle in the first Test <\/a>which suggests Carter may be given a rest this week, with Moorby, Rieko Ioane or Emoni Narawa potential replacements.<\/p>\n

Asked how he would deal with Carter, Rennie said: \u201cGive him a cuddle. He\u2019s such a good man and I\u2019ll tell you, he was hurting. It\u2019s tough\u2026 a winger misses a tackle and it\u2019s out in the open and you concede points \u2013 it hurts. A big fella around the edge of a ruck misses a tackle and no one notices. But that\u2019s part of the responsibility of him defending out wide. I know he\u2019ll be better.\u201d<\/p>\n

Rennie and his men will be desperate for the win on Sunday that will allow them to share the trophy \u2013 the special design, held together by magnets, allows it to be split in two \u2013 but he felt this toughest of tours has been valuable regardless.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ve had more time together,\u201d Rennie said. \u201cPrior to coming [to South Africa] we\u2019d had three and a half weeks together and there\u2019s a lot of detail within our game \u2013 there has been a chance to grow that.<\/p>\n

\u201cCulturally it\u2019s been good for us \u2013 connection wise \u2013 and, when you look at the footy we\u2019ve played and the amount of players we\u2019ve used, it\u2019s been really good for us long term.<\/p>\n

\"All<\/p>\n

All Blacks wing Leroy Carter runs in for a try against the Boks in the Cape Town Test. (Source: Photosport)<\/p>\n

\u201cYou reflect on that [recent] game and there were a couple of things that if we\u2019d done a bit better maybe we get a better result. We know we\u2019re not going to be flawless because of the type of game we\u2019re trying to play. We\u2019re not going to get it right every time from a decision-making point of view but if we can create enough of those opportunities and take a big chunk of them then that should be good enough to win games.\u201d<\/p>\n

Scrum issues remain<\/p>\n

The thorny topic of scrums remains, however, after one monster of an effort from the Boks in Soweto resulted in a penalty try.<\/p>\n

Rarely out of the headlines on this tour \u2013 from the All Blacks\u2019 complaints about the tactics of the South Africans in this area, and the replies by the aggrieved parties<\/a> \u2013 it’s an issue that refuses to die. <\/p>\n

It is clear the officials have recently been instructed to focus on the technicalities of the opposing hookers\u2019 \u201cbrake\u201d feet; the two players\u2019 left feet as they set up next to the mark. The All Blacks\u2019 issue is that the officials are now looking at little else. <\/p>\n

Asked about the scrums this morning, Rennie said: \u201cWe can talk about scrums but clearly our view and the view of World Rugby and the officials is different, so you\u2019ve just got to deal with that. <\/p>\n

\u201cThey don\u2019t see it the way we do and they\u2019re the ones that matter on game day. We\u2019ll have to be better. On our ball, the scrum was reasonably solid. We got it badly wrong on one and got punished on one of their feeds. It\u2019s a weapon for them and that\u2019s the challenge. We want high continuity. If you make an error, they go to a set piece, get a penalty off that and march up the field. It\u2019s still an area we have to be better in.\u201d<\/p>\n

Rennie was reluctant to elaborate but added: \u201cWe\u2019ve said a few things and have spoken to World Rugby about it. They agree in some parts but not necessarily on everything. <\/p>\n

\u201cThe sole focus at the moment seems to be the brake foot and if referees are looking for the brake foot they don\u2019t see all the other things that you\u2019re supposed to be looking at. I don\u2019t think we\u2019re helping our referees by making their job any easier.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn the end that wasn\u2019t the deciding factor in the game. South Africa were very good at creating opportunities and taking their chances. That maul which they scored from under the posts \u2013 that was a big moment in the game. We know we can do a few things a bit better to limit their opportunities and be a little bit more clinical [then] the result could go the other way.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"All Blacks head coach Dave Rennie has spoken of the \u201cmassive emotional disappointment\u201d of losing the South African…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":593591,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[789,42,43,40,38,41,39],"class_list":["post-593590","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headlines","tag-all-blacks","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\/593590","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=593590"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/593590\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/593591"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=593590"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=593590"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=593590"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}