All Blacks turn to fresh bodies with seven changes for Springboks finale

“We always planned for there to be a number of changes for this match,” Rennie said. “Every player here has worked incredibly hard over the last seven weeks to prepare the team for the seven games we’ve played so far, and all those selected for this Test fully deserve it.

With no regards to form. Gotcha.

With a “series draw” the best result the ABs can achieve I think this is Rennies equivalent of a midweek lineup. He can see some tough matches stretching ahead of him and needs to preserve some top line players.

The problem is that the constant change of lineup has yet to yield any coherency of performance. Constant AB errors and aimless kicking simply feed the Bok set play dominance. The Boks fear the AB broken play skills , but little else, so the only thing that Rennie has brought is the Canes Super Rugby attack which the Bok rush defence stopped in its tracks. Opportunistic strikes from our undoubtedly gifted wingers vcan only carry us so far.

Bit flat after this….ALB just seems to be his steady eddie selection he cant look past. What a chance blown to see Jim and Narawa. Most positive selection for me is Tups back at 6. I feel Love should be there, even if just on bench….he needs to play every game until RWC

Meh…

We’ll see.

Fineanganofo will go and play in England. He’s not part of Rennie’s plans.

Tavatavanawai can also start asking himself some questions. Not on the team sheet for any of the four Tests, even though this last match was the perfect opportunity to give him a chance. Nope…

We’ll see…

Interesting selections with some old hands back on deck. Beaudy, Cody, ALB, Reiko and Paddy add to the test caps tally and have not played badly this tour. Cody, Beaudy and ALB are not the force they were but they may have a good one left in them. Like Rassie and despite the narrative that the US game was a dead rubber, Rennie is playing for some series respect and to put a marker down for team progress. Of course a loss for the SBs would only mean a series tie (no overall loss possible) and that would be the best the ABs can hope for. RGR continues to deliver.

Let’s hope Moorby has learnt to tackle and we have benched our most effective forward in Aumua, for Cody Taylor. Understand we need the leadership, but he is showing his years.

Think ABs have missed an opportunity by not putting Timoci Tavatavanawai on the bench over Barrett, we know what Barrett can do and Moorby can back up fullback if McKenzie get’s injured.

But this game would be a great opportunity to see if Tavatavanawai has the ability to play and be impactful at this level.

But tight 5 overall looks stronger and backrow looks more balanced - let’s hope Blackadder has a killer of a game!

Let’s go ABs!