Dave Rennie highlights issue leading to All Blacks’ set-piece struggles

All Blacks head coach Dave Rennie believes that his side must limit the Springboks’ power game at the set-piece by focusing on their own game.

Rennie’s side produced another underwhelming performance at scrum time in Soweto, ultimately leading to a second straight defeat in Rugby’s Greatest Rivalry.

Despite enjoying some success on their own ball, Rennie admitted the All Blacks got it “badly wrong” on several other occasions.

But it’s the constant errors the 62-year-old head coach pinpoints, where they are gifting the Springboks opportunities to execute their strengths at set-piece time.

“Yes, I mean, we could talk about scrums, but we’ll have to be better,” Rennie told New Zealand media on Tuesday.

“They’ve got a great scrum, they’ve got a great maul, so our ability to stay in front of that maul is important. And when we did that, we limited their ability to hurt us, and likewise at scrum time.

“The easiest way is to limit those occurrences. So, if we’re more accurate, there are fewer scrums and greater continuity for us, and we don’t kick the ball out.

“There’s less line outs for them, and discipline comes into it. You can’t just make their strengths disappear. But our job is to limit the amount of opportunities they get.

“I think on our ball, the scrum was reasonably solid. We got it badly wrong on one, then got punished with one of their feeds, and so look, it’s a weapon for them, and that’s the challenge.

“We want high continuity. If you make an error, they get to go to a set piece. They get a penalty off that. They march up the field, and so yeah it’s still an area we’re going to have to be better at.”

Rather than dwelling on the set-piece issues, Rennie explained that if the All Blacks can become more clinical in attack, the outcome in Soweto could have been different.

“South Africa are very good at creating opportunities and taking their chances, and so they scored it under the post. That was a big moment in the game, and so we know if we can do a couple of things a bit better, limit their opportunities, and be a little bit more clinical, the result could go another way.

“But they’re a very good side, and they scramble really well, and yeah I think the better side probably won in the end.”

Both sides travelled to Washington, DC together on the same plane from Johannesburg, allowing the players to interact outside of the arena.

“I don’t know [if there was banter]. Because we’re all sort of dispersed amongst each other, but we might have been in one cabin section, and then they’re in the next one, or some guys are upstairs in similar cabins.

“So yeah, I don’t know. There was a bit of work being done, there was a lot of sleeping going on, and yeah, it was fine. I’m not sure how much bantering or that sort of thing went on, but there’s a lot of goodwill between the two sides, so travelling together was good.”