Dave Rennie opens up on All Blacks’ progress ahead of first SA Test

Despite the All Blacks securing three wins from three games so far on Rugby’s Greatest Rivalry Tour, head coach Dave Rennie is keeping his feet firmly on the ground.

His side put 50 points on the 2026 United Rugby Championship runners-up, the Bulls, 54 on the Sharks, and 38 on the Stormers, charging to six wins on the trot ahead of the four-Test series.

But Rennie is clear that they are far from the perfect product, and will need a shift in quality if they want to secure a famous victory at Ellis Park next weekend.

Touching on the contest post-match in Pretoria, the All Blacks head coach said the scoreline is a positive, but there were still aspects of the game that were “frustrating”.

“50 points against a very good Bulls side is a positive. Now, we played a team that was prepared to play today and really took it to us,” Rennie explained.

“I thought our set piece was really strong, especially the scrum. Which I thought, from a discipline point of view, was a lot better tonight.

“We created so many opportunities, eleven line breaks to one. So we probably left a few points out there, which is a little frustrating. But can’t fault the efforts, and a number of boys will be better for the opportunity to run around at altitude.”

“I thought we had a lot of opportunities tonight to really play on top of the Bulls and force defenders to make decisions, and it was almost like we were training for the Springboks.

“We’re coming a lot harder defensively, so it’s good for us. We’ve now got a game at altitude, and guys got an appreciation for that. I thought we worked really hard in those circumstances, and we’ll be better for it.

“So, what we know that the intensity level, the quality that we’re going to come up against next week is three, four, five-fold. We’ve played reasonably well on tour, and we know we need to up the ante.”

When asked specifically about the improvement at scrum time, Rennie shifts the credit to assistant coach Jason Ryan.

“I think it’s a result of just a lot of hard work, a couple of little technical things around the Stormers game that we’re doing better now, and so a lot of lot of good work from Jason Ryan and his group.”

Stand-in All Blacks captain Codie Taylor, who scored a double in his first appearance on tour, said he feels his side has made considerable strides during these tour outings.

“Yeah, I’m sure they’re [Springboks] going to be asking a lot more questions come next week, and from where we started with the Stormers and built our way through these club games, I feel like we made some great strides as a forward pack, and by no means are we the finished product,” Taylor said.

“There’s going to be so much more we can work on, and it’s going to be even tougher come next week. But we can be really happy and confident with the steps we’re making.”