Following the announcement of the All Blacks squad to tour the United Kingdom, here are our five takeaways from Dave Rennie’s selections for the northern leg of the Nations Championship.
Top line: The injury list
Codie Taylor will once again captain the All Blacks in November, with Rennie and his fellow selectors, Sir Graham Henry and Neil Barnes, dropping some selection surprises for New Zealand’s final matches this year.
First of all, the size of the squad is bigger than many predicted, with 36 players boarding the plane to the United Kingdom for matches against Scotland, Wales and England, respectively, before the finals weekend.
While this is still a powerful All Blacks squad on paper, the team has been hammered by injuries, with Samisoni Taukei’aho (calf), Shannon Frizell (knee), Tyrel Lomax (neck), Leroy Carter (ankle), Ruben Love (ankle), Ardie Savea (shoulder), Luke Jacobson (elbow), Caleb Clarke (shoulder), Ollie Norris (knee) and Billy Proctor (shoulder) all sidelined. Simon Parker has also made himself unavailable due to personal reasons.
Despite the ever-growing injury list, Rennie has still omitted the likes of Patrick Tuipulotu and Du’Plessis Kirifi and overlooked several in-form players who shone during the NPC, including Tasman’s try-scoring machine Kyren Taumoefolau.
The squad does have a familiar feel about it, with Taylor joined by Asafo Aumua and George Bell as the hooker options. Ethan de Groot, George Bower, Xavier Numia, Fletcher Newell and Pasilio Tosi are retained as the props in the squad, with uncapped tighthead Saula Ma’u coming in for Lomax.
After marking his return against Australia, Scott Barrett is named among the locks alongside Josh Lord, Fabian Holland and Tupou Vaa’i, with Jamie Hannah being named in an All Blacks squad for the first time after serving as injury cover previously.
The loose forward stocks have been depleted throughout the year, but Rennie still has a strong crop of talent in the back-row. Anton Segner continues after his breakout year at the highest level. Peter Lakai and Wallace Sititi provide versatility in the loose trio while Ethan Blackadder is back from his setback that saw him miss the two Tests against Australia.
There are two fresh faces in Crusaders duo Leicester Fainga’anuku and Christian Lio-Willie, the former earning a call-up after injuries denied him the opportunity to feature in Rugby’s Greatest Rivalry series and the July internationals. Lio-Willie earns his first selection under Rennie after a two-year absence from the squad after debuting under Scott Robertson in 2024.
The scrum-halves are the same three that Rennie has utilised for most of the year: Cam Roigard, Kyle Preston and Cortez Ratima. Damian McKenzie is listed among the first-fives, where he is likely to feature against Scotland, but the All Blacks have been boosted by the fitness of Richie Mo’unga, who is likely to return against Wales or England. Josh Jacomb is the third fly-half option and could make his Test debut after featuring on Rugby’s Greatest Rivalry tour.
There are no changes in the centres either, with Jordie Barrett, Quinn Tupaea, Timoci Tavatavanawai and Anton Lienert-Brown retained. Chay Fihaki is the headline outside back inclusion following the injury to Carter, and he will provide competition for the likes of Will Jordan, Fehi Fineanganofo, Rieko Ioane and Josh Moorby for a place on the wing, while Beauden Barrett is an option at full-back and first-five.
Game-changing selection
Last year, Rassie Erasmus debuted his hybrid experiment, naming Andre Esterhuizen on the bench for the clash against the Barbarians. Usually a midfielder, Esterhuizen has regularly been used as a loose forward for the Boks since then, with the 32-year-old becoming a regular inclusion on the bench after struggling for Test caps due to the presence of Damian de Allende at inside centre.
South Africa are not the only nation that have trailed this ploy, with France doing similar with Sekou Macalou and Oscar Jegou in the past, while England have trained with Ben Earl and Henry Pollock in the backs too.
Rennie has been eager to do the same with Fainga’anuku after his performances in the back row for the Crusaders during this year’s Super Rugby Pacific campaign. Fainga’anuku started the season in the backline for the ‘Saders, playing on the wing and in the centres, the positions where he started his career and previously earned Test caps for the All Blacks. However, he was most impactful in the loose forwards this year, and that’s where he has earned his recall to the team.
A broken leg meant that he was unavailable for selection for the July Nations Championship Tests and Rugby’s Greatest Rivalry, but having got two halves of rugby under his belt with Tasman, he is finally set to make his return, and it could be a game-changer for the All Blacks that he is back in the mix.
Erasmus popularised the 6-2 bench split, which many nations have copied since, except for New Zealand, with only Ian Foster straying away from the traditional 5-3 in the record defeat to the Boks in London before the 2023 Rugby World Cup. However, with Fainga’anuku being a hybrid player, Rennie can take a far less risky approach by selecting a 6-2 split that is essentially still a 5-3. The impact of the bench is becoming more and more prominent in the international game, and what makes Fainga’anuku even more of a weapon in the final quarter is that he not only offers impact in the back-row and centre but on the wing too – which is not really the case with Esterhuizen.
A real test of the All Blacks’ depth
As detailed above, the All Blacks are dealing with somewhat of an injury crisis. The loose forwards have been hit particularly hard with Savea and Jacobson ruled out, but New Zealand managed the two Bledisloe Cup Tests without the duo.
However, Frizell’s injury and Parker’s withdrawal have added even more pressure to the back-row stocks, while Lomax’s absence puts further strain on the front row, with Tamaiti Williams already missing the entirety of the season. Taukei’aho’s calf injury provides an opportunity for Bell, who sustained a setback of his own before the first whistle of Rugby’s Greatest Rivalry.
Mo’unga will also miss the first Test match, against Scotland, at the very least, but again McKenzie and Beauden Barrett combined wonderfully against the Wallabies as the playmakers. Still, the tour north is an entirely different challenge, and the accumulation of all the injuries does put pressure on the entire squad.
Set-piece concerns
Rennie and his selectors have gone some way in addressing the set-piece shortcomings that the Springboks exposed during the RGR series, with Lomax left back in New Zealand to address his neck issue. A world-class tighthead when at his best, we haven’t seen the Hurricanes front-rower hit that kind of form this year, and he has been overlooked for the betterment of his health and the health of the All Blacks’ scrum.
The scrum wasn’t much of a factor in the Tests against the Wallabies, but that was largely down to both nations often viewing the set-piece as a matter of restarting play rather than as a weapon. However, Scotland and England have a different focus entirely, particularly the latter. Steve Borthwick’s men may have experienced their worst-ever Six Nations campaign, but their poor showings weren’t because of their scrum, which was actually one of the few major positives from their campaign.
That came off the back of a strong scrummaging performance in November and continued after the Six Nations during the southern hemisphere leg of the Nations Championship. Scotland’s scrum is perhaps slightly underrated on the international scene, and both them and England will view the set-piece as an area of the game where they can pressurise the All Blacks.
The lineout was also an issue for New Zealand against South Africa, with Rennie’s men regularly throwing to the front. It’s far easier to attack from further back in the set-piece, but they weren’t willing to risk losing possession there and instead went where they felt they could win the ball.
Scott Barrett’s return to the black jersey saw New Zealand’s lineout improve, but the Wallabies were able to put them under the cosh, claiming multiple steals in both Tests. That fact won’t escape the gaze of Gregor Townsend, Borthwick and Steve Tandy, who all have fantastic lineout jumpers at their disposal.
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Rewarding form
There will be those who bemoan the absence of Lucas Casey and Taumoefolau in the squad, with the former impressing with Otago in the NPC while the latter scored a mind-boggling 19 times in 11 appearances for Tasman.
However, Rennie has found space to reward NPC form in his squad, most notably in the form of Fihaki and Hannah. Fihaki earned his debut as a last-minute change for the Sydney Bledisloe Cup Test but retains his place in the squad largely through his performances in the NPC. Meanwhile, Hannah has muscled his way up the lock pecking order, which is no small feat considering that Tuipulotu and Darry were both available for selection.
Lio-Willie’s recall addresses the need for an abrasive, physical back-rower, with Parker remaining in New Zealand, but the 28-year-old is thoroughly deserving of a recall after narrowly missing out on the RGR tour.
Jacomb is also retained and while he only featured in the latter stages of Taranaki’s NPC season, he was excellent in South Africa when given the chance. Hooker Bell was also superb for Canterbury and deserves an opportunity again after injury denied him an appearance on the RGR tour.