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Dave Rennie responds to Felix Jones' issues with All Blacks
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All Blacks head coach Dave Rennie has dismissed claims that there are illegal “themes” present in his team’s game, painting the instances that Springboks defence coach Felix Jones identified at a press conference this week as one-offs.
Jones called out the All Blacks for entering rucks with “tucked shoulders” and lifting legs in the maul, saying the URC teams the All Blacks have faced over the past two weeks were caught out by the illegal acts.
Rennie acknowledged the specific calls that went against his side, but refuted the idea that there were trends his men were guilty of.
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“I think Felix was pointing out a handful of things; clawing a leg, we did that once and got penalised. We threw a guy across the lineout once and got penalised. We were pulling back at the back of a maul, got penalised, and were sin-binned,” the Kiwi coach recalled.
“So, we’ve learned. Discipline was much better on the weekend, and we know that’s going to be important against the Springboks.”
Jones referenced the plays as a continuation of what the Springboks had seen from the All Blacks in their three July Tests, and addressed his concerns with the referees of Saturday’s match through official channels.
Rennie said he has also followed the usual process of submitting videos that the All Blacks have concerns over, but was uninterested in going into those details publicly.
“We sent in clips with concerns we’ve got; I’m sure they’ve done the same thing,” Rennie said. “I’m not sure why they’re trying to air that stuff in the media; I’ve got no plans on sharing any of the clips that we’ve sent in.”
Jones’ comments came after the New Zealand camp expressed concerns about the Springboks potentially trying to slow the game down, an idea that referee-turned-Springbok advisor Jaco Peyper publicly disagreed with at another press conference earlier in the week.
While he wouldn’t go into detail on his concerns over the Springboks’ tactics, Rennie was happy to share what he believes it will take to win game one of the series this weekend.
“I think belief is a massive part of it. We’re going to Ellis Park to play the Springboks; it’s almost their mecca,” Rennie said.
“We’re really excited by the challenge. We’ve been here three weeks; we’ve had good prep. We know we’re going to have to be at our best; we know we’re going to have to be disciplined so we don’t give them easy entries into our 22, and we have to be really accurate.
“They have an excellent team, and we certainly expect a lot of aerial attack, and if we can diffuse that, they’ll give us some opportunities to attack.”
