Justin Marshall implores Dave Rennie to zag as the rugby world zigs

The All Blacks have strayed too far from their DNA in an attempt to adapt to recent trends in the game, that’s according to former halfback Justin Marshall, who is imploring Dave Rennie to play to the country’s traditional strengths.

Marshall, now one of the most vocal pundits in New Zealand following an 81-Test career with the All Blacks, was reacting to Rennie’s appointment as All Blacks head coach when he veered into an impassioned speech on his country’s rugby DNA and how it’s been embraced to great success in era’s gone by.

The 52-year-old shared a staunch view that the aerial battle, which has become such a powerful influence in the game, is a contest the All Blacks should avoid where possible, and instead hold onto the ball and look to play attacking rugby.

“Look, I think we’ve got to get back to being much more attack-focused,” Marshall said on The Good, The Bad & Rugby Australia & New Zealand. “I think a lot of the problems the All Blacks have had, particularly in the last year, are in the aerial combat. The All Blacks have been losing those for a couple of years now.

“I don’t think we want to enter into that competition in the air. I mean, we’ve still got to deal with it, because the opposition are going to kick you the ball. But why then just go to and fro and enter back into box-kicking and going back into the aerial battle when you’re quite conclusively losing it in a game?

“Yet you’ve got this persistence, because it’s a territory-based mindset of, ‘Well, we’ve got to kick from here.’ It’s giving the ball back to the opposition.

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“I just feel that Dave Rennie, if he’s going to make this team take a step forward, it’s allowing New Zealand rugby players to play instinctively, right across the field, the full length of the field, full width of the field. Use that space and look to run into it and pass into it before kicking into it.

“Still have a kicking strategy, but when the All Blacks play at pace and tempo with quick ball and have ball skills around the forwards and the back row, middle row and even the front row, we’ve seen combining with the back line, it just puts a real tempo and pace in the game.

“Not many teams in the world can handle the All Blacks when they play like that, and they’re in sync. So I’m hoping he’s heading in that direction and gravitating a little bit away from falling into this mindset that the world is in, that you’re too afraid to make errors, particularly in your own half. So it’s box-kicking or high-kicking, trying to win the ball back in the air.

“You know what? Fatigue defenders. Hold on to it in your own half for 15 phases, and then break them apart because they’re tired, rather than them not being tired because you’ve kicked it back on the second phase.

“So hopefully he enters into it that way, because I think that’s what’s inside the All Black and the New Zealand rugby players’ soul in the way that we want to play. That’s our DNA. If you go to any school that’s around, yeah, the kids might be in bare feet throwing a rugby ball around, but they aren’t bloody well kicking it. They’re passing it. That’s why we’ve got such great passing skills.”

Former Wallabies hooker Jeremy Paul was in agreement with Marshall and was hoping, for Australia’s sake, that Rennie sticks to the trends and adopts a high-usage kicking game.

“I tell you what I hope, I hope Dave Rennie doesn’t watch the show, because there’s nothing scarier than watching an All Black side run the f***ing ball,” said an emphatic Paul.