'Telling guys to get out': Dave Rennie wants faster ball speed for All Blacks in third Test

Dave Rennie has identified the areas the All Blacks will need to fix in the third Test if they are to secure a famous 2-1 series victory on South African soil next week.

With Cam Roigard on the field the All Blacks were able to play with flow for large passages, keeping the tempo high and creating a number of opportunities.

At one point the Springboks had conceded just one penalty through the first 50 minutes of play with referee Gardner preferring to keep the game going.

Rennie believed this successfully slowed down the game with tacklers getting coached out of the rucks.

“Continuity is such a big part of our game. I thought we carried better, we cleaned better, the speed of the ball is important for us,” Rennie said post-match.

“Sometimes it’s hard to get gain line against the South Africans early in the match when they’ve got a a big wall in front here.

“You know, and look, Angus is the type of referee who manages the breakdown a lot. He spends a lot of time telling guys to get out and so on, and so you know, that was able to slow a bit of our ball down too. So speed of ball’s massive for us.”

The tough part of the puzzle is the Springboks kicking game which again was frequent, registering 35 kicks over the All Blacks’ 23.

The high ball became troublesome in Cape Town with many contests won back by the Springboks despite the retreating ball catcher.

Rennie said that if they can get the ball security from the aerial game they will have more counter-attacking opportunities.

“We’re going to have to deal with their kicking game, which is excellent. And so we got a plan, we’ve got guys going back,” he said.

“But they were able to sneak around the side [of the retreating player] and contest and win stuff. It gives them a little bit more continuity, puts more pressure on us. So if we can deal with that.

“They kick a lot of balls here, and then you get a lot of opportunities from a counter attack point of view. So I reckon it’s really small margins.

Dave Rennie concedes the lineout will be a ‘work on’ for the All Blacks after a number of missed opportunities starting at the set piece came in Cape Town.

Hooker Codie Taylor had an off day, missing multiple throws in the first half including with the All Blacks hot on attack in the red zone after kicking to the corner.

Reserve hooker Asafo Aumua also came under pressure, losing a key throw inside the 22 in the second half as well.

After fixing up a horror scrum from last week, the All Blacks will have to be better from lineout to secure their attacking platforms.

“We had a lot of lineouts. We had 18, won 15. A couple of those were a little bit scrappy,” he said.

“Well, obviously they had a pretty good plan. We’ve got to be able to adjust how they’re defending our line out and so yeah it’s a work on.”

Overall the seven point margin showed that the All Blacks are putting up enough points to win with nine tries in the first two Tests, it is improving discipline on defence to stop the flow of momentum that the Boks capitalised on in Cape Town.

“For all the pressure we’re under tonight, we lost by seven, and what we know is we can create opportunities, we can score, and so we just need to be really clinical and deny them opportunities down our end of the field and deal with that ball in the air.”