LONG READ Dave Rennie starts his quest for the perfect All Blacks back three combination

However strong and balanced the All Blacks’ squad picked for the Nations Championship may appear to be, there’s a missing piece from the set-up.

New coach Dave Rennie has selected a 34-man squad that has tight-five grunt, ball-carrying loose forwards, creative playmakers, dynamic midfielders and outside backs who can finish.
If Leicester Fainga’anuku had been fit, the squad also would have contained a genuine hybrid loose forward-wing.

But what it doesn’t have – not definitively – is an athlete with the aerial skills to compete for high balls, the pace and agility to terrorise defenders and the strategic brain and kicking portfolio to effectively manage the backfield.

Both Will Jordan and new cap Josh Moorby, will feel that assessment is harsh. But while they have the potential to be the all-rounders the back three needs, there is no certainty that either can consistently deliver at this level.

And the importance of the All Blacks having at least one, if not two total footballers in their back three is enormous because Rennie and his attack coach Mike Blair have made it clear that they are looking to use counter attacks as their key weapon.

The All Blacks want to play a high-tempo style, and strike from counter attacks. Blair recently said on the Aotearoa Rugby Pod: “We talk about turnover ball. We talk about creating counter-attack ball. And to do that, obviously you need a good jackal or a defence that’s able to force errors.

“But equally you’ve got to kick to the opposition to get them to kick back to you, so that you find the unstructured defence as well.”

The squad picked by Rennie has two power wings in Caleb Clarke and Fehi Fineanganofo, and two versatile options in Jordan and Moorby.

This quartet appears to give the All Blacks the range of options they need to play the game Rennie wants to see.

Clarke and Fineanganofo have that ball carrying threat where they can run over or around defenders and Moorby and Jordan can both play fullback.

Last year, the All Blacks put themselves under constant pressure because they dropped so many high balls and their backfield lacked a general with the desire and accuracy to command the air.

Some analysts may, therefore, likely think that picking the All Blacks back three is a no-brainer – that the in-form Fineanganofo and Clarke go on the wings and Jordan starts at fullback.
But if Rennie’s All Blacks want to counterattack from opposition kicks, they need players in their back three who can catch the ball.

The unknown about the quartet of outside backs Rennie has picked is whether they have the requisite kick-catch skills required to deal with the inevitable aerial bombardment that is a big part of the international game?

Last year, the All Blacks put themselves under constant pressure because they dropped so many high balls and their backfield lacked a general with the desire and accuracy to command the air.
Jordan is the man many pundits have said is the natural choice to be entrusted to be the backfield commandeer, but he has never convinced as a fullback at this level.

He has emphatically proven he is a brilliant finisher. His strike rate of 45 tries in 54 Tests is one of the best in history and alludes to the fact he is not only lightening quick, but that he also has incredible anticipation and vision as he pops up in unusual places with impeccable timing.

What Jordan hasn’t done yet, however, is prove unequivocally that he has the capability to play fullback at Test level. He thrives there for the Crusaders at Super Rugby but hasn’t been as comfortable in the role for the All Blacks, where the role comes with a higher aerial demand and a sharper defensive focus.

Former coach Ian Foster rarely used Jordan at fullback and even Scott Robertson, who had been Jordan’s coach at the Crusaders, bounced his protegee between wing and fullback when he had charge of the All Blacks in 2024 and 2025.

What they didn’t have full confidence in was his aerial skill-set and strategic vision, and both coaches, at different times typically preferred Beauden Barrett and Damian McKenzie at fullback.
Getting up in the air to win possession is something that Jordan has worked tirelessly to get better at, and he said before the final Test of 2025 against Wales: “It is an interesting one, the high ball.

If Will Jordan wants to command the No 15 jersey under Rennie, he’s going to have to deliver more accurate aerial work.

“The first thing to understand about it is that the game has changed around it. The laws have changed, so now there is a whole load of competing going on. In the last three tests, we’ve actually, statistically, won the aerial battle.

“The balls that have gone up, we have ended up with more than the opposition. There has been a bit of a perception about how we have handled it.

“A little bit of this now is physics – a person with a high hand against someone trying to catch it. If you can win the leap and get up, there are still opportunities to win the ball.
“If you consider, at the start of my career, you were looking to catch maybe 80%-100% of them, but maybe now those numbers have shifted a little bit.”

Jordan may have been right about the statistical victories the All Blacks won at the end of 2025, but to those watching, there was no sense of that being the case, and if he wants to command the No 15 jersey under Rennie, he’s going to have to deliver more accurate aerial work.

Moorby looks like he can win contestable kicks and get safely under high balls, while he’s obviously finish things as he scored a record 17 tries in Super Rugby (as did his team-mate Fineanganofo).

“They’ve scored 17 tries, which is a record and reflects the type of rugby that the Hurricanes played, but the ability of these boys to finish,” Rennie said of Moorby and Fineanganofo.
“I love their anticipation on both sides of the park, massive work ethic, and then the ability to beats defenders and finish is key.”

But Moorby is untried at this level and hasn’t been exposed to the advanced kicking strategies employed by the best international teams.

Super Rugby in 2026 was fast and open, mostly ball-in-hand rugby and there needs to be an acknowledgement that looking good on the end of a Hurricanes backline that created time and space for the two wingers, is not evidence of Moorby being ready to play fullback for the All Blacks.

If a Jordan-Clarke- Fineanganofo combination isn’t the right one to give the All Blacks what they need to play their counterattack game, then what is?

For a decade, the All Blacks had the perfect back three formula to thrive in the modern game. They had two kick-catch, versatile footballers in the mix – the likes of Dagg and Smith who could win the ball in the air, but who also had the pace and footwork to facilitate counter attacks.

The answer may lie in what has worked well in the past. The 2011 World Cup-winning side had two back three player who ticked all these boxes – Israel Dagg and Cory Jane – while the 2015 team that retained the trophy, had Ben Smith.

These three players were equally comfortable at wing or fullback and all three gave the All Blacks a much-needed balance of skill-sets in their back three set-up.

For the better part of a decade, the All Blacks had the perfect back three formula to thrive in the modern game. They had two kick-catch, versatile footballers in the mix – the likes of Dagg and Smith who could win the ball in the air, but who also had the pace and footwork to facilitate counter attacks and finish one-on-one opportunities.

And they would have a power wing such as Julian Savea or Waisake Naholo to complete the package and give the All Blacks a big, hard-to-stop runner on the left flank.

Would, then a Jordan-Moorby-Clarke combination be the way to go? Or, even Beauden Barrett-Jordan-Clarke at some point in the Championship?

Barrett didn’t have a vintage Super Rugby campaign, but he’s good in the air, quick enough still to cover the necessary ground at fullback and facilitate counterattacks, and a good strategic operator with a kicking game.

Maybe its not fair to say the All Blacks are missing a piece, but they do need to see Jordan make a definitive shift in his aerial work this year and Moorby prove he can adapt his game to cope with the demands of Test rugby.