Du’Plessis Kirifi has become the first awkward selection argument of Dave Rennie’s All Blacks tenure.
Rennie’s first 34-man squad for the Nations Championship Southern Series already had a clear headline, with Ardie Savea named captain and four uncapped players rewarded after a bruising Super Rugby Pacific season. Yet the omission of Kirifi, the Hurricanes co-captain who has just helped drive a title-winning campaign, has given the announcement a sharper edge than a simple new-era squad list.
ReadRugbyUnion has already looked at how Savea’s captaincy gives Rennie’s first squad its hard edge, but Kirifi’s absence asks a different question: how much specialist breakdown work is Rennie prepared to sacrifice for back-row flexibility?
A title winner left outside
The official All Blacks squad includes loose forwards Savea, Peter Lakai, Simon Parker, Wallace Sititi, Luke Jacobson and Anton Segner. That is a strong group, and not one picked without logic. Savea’s status is obvious, Lakai’s ceiling is enormous, Sititi has already carried Test-level expectation, Jacobson covers several jobs, Parker brings a hard provincial edge and Segner has forced his way in after an excellent Blues season.
Still, Kirifi’s omission jars because of the season he has just put together. The Hurricanes did not merely win Super Rugby Pacific; they closed it with a 60-5 demolition of the Chiefs, and their loose-forward work was central to the authority of that run. Kirifi has been one of the players who gave the Hurricanes their bite around the ruck and their emotional temperature in the biggest weeks.
That is why the reaction has been so pointed. RugbyPass reported that former All Blacks James Parsons and Jeff Wilson were among those surprised by the decision, which reflects the broader feeling in New Zealand that Kirifi had done enough to at least force a closer look.
Versatility may have won the argument
The simplest reading is that Rennie has chosen a squad built for coverage. The All Blacks start against France before facing Italy and Ireland, and the back row needs to survive three Tests with different physical demands. In that environment, Jacobson’s ability to cover across the loose trio and Segner’s broader skill set may have counted for more than Kirifi’s specialist openside profile.
That does not make the decision painless. If the new All Blacks staff want the side to play with sharper breakdown pressure, Kirifi looked like a natural fit. He is not a luxury player. He is a contest player, a nuisance player, and the sort of forward whose best work can change the rhythm of a Test without dominating a highlights package.
There is also a Hurricanes layer here. Rennie has already rewarded the champions heavily, and ReadRugbyUnion’s earlier piece on how Rennie’s first All Blacks squad had a Hurricanes problem underlined the pressure created by that final performance. Picking several Hurricanes but leaving out one of their tone-setters makes the call more conspicuous, not less.
The door should not be closed
The important point is that this should not be treated as a verdict on Kirifi’s Test future. It is an opening squad, not a World Cup cut. Injuries, workload and form will keep moving the picture, particularly with Scott Barrett, Fabian Holland, Tamaiti Williams and Leicester Fainga’anuku already unavailable through injury in other parts of the squad.
Rennie has made an early statement about what he values in his loose forwards. He wants balance, cover and enough variety to change the shape of the back row across a three-Test block. That is a legitimate selection position. It is also one that will be judged quickly if New Zealand lose control of the collision or the ruck against France.
Kirifi’s response now matters. He can either become the unlucky omission of this first squad or the player who makes the next one impossible to name without him. After the Hurricanes’ record final win, covered here in ReadRugbyUnion’s look at how the Hurricanes rout changed the All Blacks conversation, there is every reason to think he will keep applying pressure.
For Rennie, that is the healthy problem. His first All Blacks squad has already created competition. Kirifi’s omission ensures it has created accountability too.
