{"id":815001,"date":"2026-10-27T02:08:13","date_gmt":"2026-10-27T02:08:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/815001\/"},"modified":"2026-10-27T02:08:13","modified_gmt":"2026-10-27T02:08:13","slug":"all-blacks-coach-on-sam-darry-weve-just-got-amazing-depth-in-that-position","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/815001\/","title":{"rendered":"All Blacks coach on Sam Darry: ‘We’ve just got amazing depth in that position’"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Published: 4 hours ago | 26 October 2026 17:13 EDT <\/p>\n

mens<\/p>\n

international<\/p>\n

Sam Darry of the New Zealand All Blacks following the Nations Championship match between New Zealand All Blacks and France at One New Zealand Stadium, on July 04, 2026 in Christchurch, New Zealand. (Photo by Phil Walter\/Getty Images) \"Google <\/a> <\/p>\n

From starring in the first three Tests of Dave Rennie\u2019s reign as head coach of the All Blacks<\/a>, to missing out on back-to-back squads, Blues<\/a> lock Sam Darry has dropped down the pecking order.<\/p>\n

The 12-Test Canterbury<\/a> lock impressed Rennie and the All Blacks coaching staff in their July Nations Championship<\/a> fixtures against France, Italy, and Ireland, before starting the final two Tests against South Africa<\/a> in Rugby\u2019s Greatest Rivalry.<\/p>\n

Darry returned to the Hilux NPC<\/a> competition after the RGR tour, and made an immediate impact with Canterbury, helping them to a title victory over Northland<\/a> at One New Zealand<\/a> Stadium in Christchurch.<\/p>\n

In the recent Bledisloe Cup series, Canterbury teammate Jamie Hannah was called up over Darry, with the same result in Tuesday\u2019s Nations Championship 36-man squad for the end-of-year tour.<\/p>\n

Hannah and Darry both lined up for their province on Labour Day Monday in the NPC final, but only one could make the All Blacks squad.<\/p>\n

Rennie, addressing media at their Auckland<\/a> hotel on Tuesday, said the lock selections were among the more difficult decisions.<\/p>\n

\u201cYeah, look, he\u2019s [Darry] unlucky because he\u2019s played a lot of good footy for us, and that was a message to him,\u201d the All Blacks head coach said.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ve just got amazing depth in that position all of a sudden, obviously with Scooter coming back, and then the quality of the other locks that we got there.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe really like Jamie Hannah. Good athlete,\u00a0really good lineout forward, runs the line out well, and he\u2019s got a bit of a dark side around carry, clean, tackle.<\/p>\n

\u2018So yeah, look, it\u2019s tough on Sam. It would probably be the most competitive spot in our side,\u00a0and he\u2019s really unlucky to miss out.\u201d<\/p>\n

Having challenged his players after the Greatest Rivalry Tour to respond against Australia<\/a> in the Bledisloe Cup, Rennie said the feeling around the upcoming four Tests is about improving after each game.<\/p>\n

\u201cI mean, the focus is just getting better, and we\u2019re really disappointed post South Africa, but\u00a0the only way you can respond is through performance.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s easy to get an\u00a0edge at Eden Park and try\u00a0to secure the Bledisloe Cup, and so\u00a0what was impressive in Sydney is that we talked a lot about our standards and where we want to get to, and we probably muddled our way through a little bit and just left a few opportunities out there early in the second half.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut the first half was excellent, and so we want to be able to build on that. There\u2019s strong competition for places, and\u00a0that helps as well.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Published: 4 hours ago | 26 October 2026 17:13 EDT mens international Sam Darry of the New Zealand…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":815002,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[35],"tags":[5903,101,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-815001","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\/815001","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=815001"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/815001\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/815002"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=815001"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=815001"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=815001"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}