Dave Rennie reflects on All Blacks' turnaround after ill-disciplined first half

All Blacks head coach Dave Rennie has pinpointed what changed in the second half against Scotland at Murrayfield, turning around what was an ill-disciplined first half showing in Edinburgh.

Rennie’s side shot out of the blocks, scoring the opening try through dynamic loose-forward Wallace Sititi, on the back of a slow driving maul deep inside Scotland’s 22.

Despite a strong start, Gregor Townsend’s Scotland hit back minutes later and sprang to life in front of 67,148 passionate fans. Scotland hooker Ewan Ashman starred for the home side, scoring a first-half hat-trick, two of which were rolling mauls.

Rennie, alongside All Blacks captain Codie Taylor, who were visibly emotional at the press conference, said that he was proud of the way his side performed in tough circumstances this week.

“Look, we’re proud because it was an important day for us. I thought boys barred up well,” Rennie said post-match.

“Yeah, like I think if you looked at the game itself, probably ill-disciplined first half, a couple of yellow cards. You give Scotland opportunities at your finish line; they’re going to hit you.

“We were better in the second half. We went to a contestable kick game to limit their time from a counter–attack and we’re a lot more clinical, and we dominated territory a bit better.

The All Blacks head coach explained how he believed his side were much less clinical than they were against the Wallabies in the Bledisloe Cup

“So not as clinical today as we have been, though. We just lost our shape a couple of times, and from turnover, we had two or three really gilt–edge opportunities that we spilt.

“I thought we defended really well in the second half. A lot of brutality, a lot of time and tackle, which gave us more time to get organised, which was better.

‘As we’ve talked about, it’s a tough week. A massive emotional toll on the group, and you would have seen some players visibly upset on the final whistle. So proud of them to get through that.”

Rennie felt like if his side could keep 15 players on the field, and build pressure through their carry and clean game, they would start to wrestle the game back in their favour.

“Yeah, four we got wrong [in the first half]. We had a couple of yellow cards, but for all we got wrong, we’re still in front. And so, when we had possession, we scored at one stage when we had 14 on the field, and so we got our run-catch-run and our winning races and brutality going.

“Where you know we’ve got some good athletes who can hit you. So when we got that right, we were good. But yeah, we were confident that we just got to look after the ball better, defend better, and not give away penalties.”