All Blacks must up the ante against Boks, says Rennie

The All Blacks must raise the stakes and up the ante when they face the Springboks in the opening Test of the Rugby’s Greatest Rivalry Series (RGR) despite thrashing the Bulls 50-19 in an eight-try romp on Saturday, coach Dave Rennie said.

It was a third consecutive victory for the New Zealanders after wins over the Stormers in Cape Town and the Sharks in Durban in the opening three games of a tour which also includes four Tests against the Springboks.

Rennie said his team had shown improvement during the tour, but he was frustrated his team left points out on the field at Loftus ahead of Saturday’s Test at Ellis Park in Johannesburg.

“50 points against a very good Bulls side is a positive,” he said. “We played a team that was prepared to play today and really took it to us.

“I thought our set piece was really strong, especially the scrum, which from a discipline point of view was a lot better against the Bulls. We created so many opportunities, 11 line breaks to one.

“So we probably left a few points out there, which is a little frustrating. But I can’t fault the efforts, and a number of boys will be better for the opportunity to run around at altitude.

“I thought we had a lot of opportunities to really play on top of the Bulls and force defenders to make decisions, and it was almost like we were training for the Springboks.

“We’re coming a lot harder defensively, so it’s good for us. We’ve now got a game at altitude, and guys got an appreciation for that. I thought we worked really hard in those circumstances, and we’ll be better for it.

“So, what we know is that the intensity level, the quality that we’re going to come up against next week is three, four, five-fold. We’ve played reasonably well on tour, and we know we need to up the ante.”

Stand-in All Blacks captain Codie Taylor said his team had shown improvement in each of the three tour games.

“I’m sure the Springboks are going to be asking a lot more questions come Saturday,” he said.

“From where we started with the Stormers and built our way through these club games, I feel like we made some great strides as a forward pack. However, by no means are we the finished product.

“There’s going to be so much more we can work on, and it’s going to be even tougher come Saturday at Ellis Park. But we can be really happy and confident with the steps we’re making.”

All Blacks and Blues loose-forward Anton Segner was named man-of-the-match after an impressive all-round display at Loftus.

“Yeah, there were a lot of good performances,” Rennie said. “I thought Pete Lakai was excellent too till we took him off, and Anton Segner was huge.”

“So yeah, those guys are applying a lot of pressure, and obviously there is also Josh Moorby, who started the last Test against Ireland and played the Italian game off the bench.

It’s definitely different over here. I mean, it says on the tunnel on the way in that I think we’re at 1,350m [altitude] here, and that matters.

—  All Blacks loose-forward Anton Segner

“I thought Leroy Carter was really strong out on the wing. I’d like him to dive a little earlier next time, maybe score just on the line rather than two metres over it.

“I look at those guys work really hard, and that creates opportunities for us.”

Segner said the conditions were different to what he’s used to in New Zealand.

“It’s definitely different over here. I mean, it says on the tunnel on the way in that I think we’re at 1,350m [altitude] here, and that matters.

“And I could definitely feel the difference, and I’m sure the rest of the boys could too. But credit to the Bulls. I don’t think the scoreboard reflects how hard a game it was, especially there in that second half.

Scorers

• Bulls 19 – Tries: Ruan Vermaak, Stravino Jacobs, Marcell Coetzee. Conversions: Curwin Bosch (2).
• New Zealand 50 – Tries: Josh Moorby (2), Codey Taylor (2), Leroy Carter (2), Rieko Ioane, Wallace Sititi. Conversions: Beauden Barrett, Josh Jacomb (4).

The Herald