The All Blacks pulled off a strong 54-0 victory over the Sharks in the second game of the Rugby’s Greatest Rivalry tour, scoring eight tries.
With just over 10 days to go until the first test against the Springboks there are some crucial things for Dave Rennie and All Blacks fans to learn.
The Springboks are going to kick a lot in the tests
On Saturday against Argentina, we saw the Springboks go for an incredible number of kicks, a lot of which were fielded comfortably by the back three of Argentina. On the same day we saw Beauden Barrett get pummelled under the high ball by the Stormers and kicks were falling in that channel between the defensive line and the back three. This was a pattern that continued against the Sharks, although this was dealt with excellently by Ruben Love and Damian McKenzie.
My only explanation is that Rassie Erasmus is preparing the Springboks to carry out a game plan that sees them kick a lot during the tests to try and control the territory of the game. In my opinion, this has been fed down to the franchise sides to give the Springboks as much footage as possible to work with.
Quinn Tupaea: Dave Rennie’s wrecking ball
Against the Sharks, we saw the 10,12 and 13 combo we will likely see in the test matches. With this in mind, I feel we have seen a culturally Kiwi tactic from Dave Rennie in the midfield. Kiwis call the number 10 the ‘first five-eighth’ and the number 12 the ‘second five-eighth ’.
In modern rugby tactics, the number 12 has traditionally become the ball-carrying or wrecking ball player. In this game Quinn Tupaea made 15 carries, the second highest in the All Blacks team.
Tupaea is up for the job of putting a dent into the defensive line and allowing for Love, Barrett and McKenzie to exploit the space that gets created.
Ruben Love is World Class
Ruben Love has put himself in the conversation for best 10 in his recent All Blacks performances under Dave Rennie. If not, he must be one of the best goal kickers in the world. He kicked seven out of eight against the Sharks, and very few of them were easy kicks. In particular, his conversions from the touchline were spectacular. Not only that, but he was excellent under the high ball and his creative skills as a distributor are up there with the best in the world.
