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No-shows from England and France in our Six Nations team of the week
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Former All Black on race for No.12 jersey under Dave Rennie
By Henry Lee
The All Blacks No.12 jersey is one that new head coach Dave Rennie has a multitude of options in, with the likes of Jordie Barrett, Timoci Tavatavanawai, Quinn Tupaea, and David Havili fighting for selection.
Barrett was the All Blacks’ vice-captain under former head coach Scott Robertson, and is arguably the front-runner for the jersey, while the rest of the options are left battling for either the No.13 jersey or bench spots in the match day 23.
Rennie also has Lienert-Brown available for selection as well, despite being in Japan, someone who the new head coach sees and coaches first-hand at the Kobelco Kobe Steelers.
After four rounds of the Super Rugby Pacific competition in 2026, most, if not all, of these New Zealand-based options have had strong performances, leaving Rennie with a solid selection headache, come July’s first Test.
Former World Cup-winning All Black first-five Stephen Donald was impressed with Tavatavanawai’s performance against the Force, highlighting his breakdown work.
“Tavatavanawai in the wide channels defensively, was picking them off at wide rucks, like that part of his game is quite phenomenal,” Beaver said on his podcast with Kirstie Stanway, The Aftermatch.
“Quinn Tupaea does the same, but when you see someone like both of them are built pretty similarly, you’re not getting them off the ball. They are remarkable when they get across the ball.
“But he is a phenomenal player and the thing is, he does it every week. Yes, there are so many good players in that Highlanders team, but you feel like you’re watching one man when you go watch the Highlanders.
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“It is remarkable. I don’t know if I’ve quite seen anyone, maybe Ardie Savea last year with Moana Pasifika, where you just feel gravitated towards watching one guy in the team, because that’s how big an influence he is.”
Donald explained that Tupaea’s skillset is slightly different despite having a lot of the same strengths, labelling him as a “hybrid of the other two”.
“Quinn’s almost a hybrid of the other two we’re talking about. So Jordie’s got the full game, the passing, the kicking, the running and all the rest of it and then you’ve got Tavatavanawai who’s physical presence when he carries, very rarely tackled first time, very rarely loses contact, so strong over the ball.
“Then you got Quinn in the middle of it, who is equally probably powerful and strong with the carries, but also has a lot more touch to his game than he’s probably given credit for, and maybe a little bit more than Tavatavanawai, or shows a little bit more.
“Surprisingly to some of us in this room, we saw Quinn play 13, and he did it very well. So is that still a realistic option for the new All Black regime coming in?
“But it is a luxury, like we’re not even mentioning guys like Proctor. There are so many good midfielders at the moment. There’s not really a stress on depth there.”
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