{"id":766626,"date":"2026-09-10T22:52:14","date_gmt":"2026-09-10T22:52:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/766626\/"},"modified":"2026-09-10T22:52:14","modified_gmt":"2026-09-10T22:52:14","slug":"all-blacks-turn-to-fresh-bodies-with-seven-changes-for-springboks-finale","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/766626\/","title":{"rendered":"All Blacks turn to fresh bodies with seven changes for Springboks finale"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>  Published: 2 hours ago | 10 September 2026 16:00 EDT  <br \/> Updated: 3 hours ago | 10 September 2026 15:01 EDT  <\/p>\n<p>mens<\/p>\n<p>international<\/p>\n<p>    Beauden Barrett and Richie Mo&#8217;unga of New Zealand at full-time following the Rugby World Cup France 2023 Pool A match between France and New Zealand. (Photo by Hannah Peters\/Getty Images) <img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"expand\" src=\"https:\/\/eu-cdn.rugbypass.com\/images\/common-svg\/select-arrow.svg\" height=\"6\" width=\"11\"\/>      <a href=\"https:\/\/google.com\/preferences\/source?q=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.rugbypass.com%2F\" onclick=\"GATracking.sendDataLayerEvent(&#039;preferredsourcegoogle&#039;);\" aria-label=\"Google Prefered Source\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\"> <img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/1789080733_7_google_preferred_source_badge_light.png\" alt=\"Google Prefered Source\" width=\"141\" height=\"44\" class=\"google-source\"\/> <\/a>     <\/p>\n<p>The <a href=\"https:\/\/www.rugbypass.com\/teams\/new-zealand\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">All Blacks<\/a> selectors have brought in reinforcements for the Greatest Rivalry finale in Baltimore, making seven personnel changes to the starting XV to face the Springboks.<\/p>\n<p>Four changes are injury-related, with Ethan de Groot returning to start after a head injury, while Ethan Blackadder, Patrick Tuipulotu and Anton Lienert-Brown join the starting team after Ardie Savea, Luke Jacobson and Quinn Tupaea suffered tour-ending injuries.<\/p>\n<p>Savea\u2019s departure also signals a change in captaincy, with Codie Taylor returning to the starting XV after a rest week and taking charge, as he did at the start of the tour.<\/p>\n<p>The remaining changes in the starting XV include Fletcher Newell\u2019s promotion, Richie Mo\u2019unga\u2019s first Test match since the 2023 <a href=\"https:\/\/www.rugbypass.com\/rugby-world-cup\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Rugby World Cup<\/a> final at No.10, and Josh Moorby reclaiming the left wing spot.<\/p>\n<p>Cam Roigard, Jordie Barrett, Will <a href=\"https:\/\/www.rugbypass.com\/teams\/jordan\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Jordan<\/a> and Damian McKenzie continue their run of starting every Test to begin the Dave Rennie era. Sam Darry, Tupou Vaa\u2019i and Peter Lakai are also running it back after starting last week in Johannesburg, albeit not necessarily in the same positions.<\/p>\n<p>The bench includes New Zealand\u2019s most-experienced player, Beauden Barrett, in his first Test selection of the year, and Rieko Ioane, who has also only worn the black jersey against the URC club teams earlier on the tour. Josh Lord returns from injury with a bench selection.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe always planned for there to be a number of changes for this match,\u201d Rennie said. \u201cEvery player here has worked incredibly hard over the last seven weeks to prepare the team for the seven games we\u2019ve played so far, and all those selected for this Test fully deserve it.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe have everything to play for on Saturday. It is our chance to draw the series and end the tour with a performance to be proud of.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe have had incredible support travelling with us throughout the tour and amazing support back at home. We want to put in a performance that shows how much we appreciate that. We also want to honour the players and management who have returned home early but contributed so much.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>     <img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/1789080733_171_815.png.webp\"\/>  <\/p>\n<p> Head-to-Head <\/p>\n<p>  <img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/1789080734_926_811.png.webp\"\/>   <\/p>\n<p>Last 5 Meetings<\/p>\n<p>Average Points scored<\/p>\n<p>   <a href=\"https:\/\/www.rugbypass.com\/live\/new-zealand-vs-south-africa\/?g=949462\/\" class=\"link-box\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">   <\/p>\n<p>All Blacks team to play the Springboks<\/p>\n<p>1. Ethan de Groot (44)<br \/>2. Codie Taylor (111) \u2013 Captain<br \/>3. Fletcher Newell (40)<br \/>4. Patrick Tuipulotu (58)<br \/>5. Sam Darry (11)<br \/>6. Tupou Vaa\u2019I (50)<br \/>7. Ethan Blackadder (14)<br \/>8. Peter Lakai (13)<br \/>9. Cam Roigard (23)<br \/>10. Richie Mo\u2019unga (56)<br \/>11. Josh Moorby (4)<br \/>12. Jordie Barrett (84)<br \/>13. Anton Lienert-Brown (93)<br \/>14. Will Jordan (60)<br \/>15. Damian McKenzie (80)<\/p>\n<p>Reserves<\/p>\n<p>16. Asafo Aumua (25)<br \/>17. Xavier Numia (4)<br \/>18. Tyrel Lomax (54)<br \/>19. Josh Lord (16)<br \/>20. Wallace Sititi (22)<br \/>21. Kyle Preston (4)<br \/>22. Rieko Ioane (88)<br \/>23. Beauden Barrett (144)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Published: 2 hours ago | 10 September 2026 16:00 EDT Updated: 3 hours ago | 10 September 2026&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":766627,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[35],"tags":[5903,101,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-766626","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-rugby","tag-rugby","tag-sports","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/766626","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=766626"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/766626\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/766627"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=766626"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=766626"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=766626"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}