'Unbelievable': All Blacks coach heaps praise on in-form loose-forward

Even with Ardie Savea, Luke Jacobson, Anton Segner, and Ethan Blackadder missing from the All Blacks‘ 23-man squad for the Wallabies in Sydney, Dave Rennie’s side were far from short of quality in the loose-forwards.

Rennie named the same trio to start the second Test at Sydney’s Accor Stadium against the Wallabies as he did the week before in Auckland, which included Tupou Vaa’i, Peter Lakai, and Wallace Sititi.

Lakai and Sititi both had moments during Rugby’s Greatest Rivalry tour in South Africa, but the duo stepped up significantly with the recent loose-forward absences in the All Blacks squad.

Lakai finished with a game-high 18 carries against the Wallabies, making sixteen tackles, missing only four. Meanwhile, Sititi dotted down for a first-half try, and finished the Saturday afternoon contest with 15 carries and eleven tackles.

The All Blacks head coach explained that Lakai has constantly impressed the whole coaching staff throughout the 2026 campaign.

“Oh, I thought he was phenomenal in South Africa as well,” Rennie told media in his post-match press conference.

“I think he’s just an unbelievable athlete, isn’t he? Like, he runs like a back, and he’s got a great skill set. But he hits hard, and he’s got post-tackle presence.

“So yeah, he’s pretty special. Pete had another big say today.”

The Hurricanes loose-forward also featured in midfield at one point during the second half while the All Blacks were down to 13 men.

Rennie admitted he was proud of the group’s character in the second half, but was frustrated having dominated in the first forty minutes.

“I’m proud of the character and the courage; we trained all week with two midfielders who basically didn’t play today.

“So Rieko and Big Jim [Tavatavanawai] teaming up, I thought they did a really good job. Obviously, Chay Fihaki came on, and he ended up getting 40 minutes.

“Look, we ended up having to play Peter Lakai at midfield for a while and finished the game off with 13. I thought there was a lot of character, and we learnt a lot from controlling those situations.

“But yeah, disappointed that we weren’t as clinical, and I think if we scored a couple early, we could have really put the foot on the throat.”

All Blacks stand-in captain Codie Taylor believes that this group under Rennie is building nicely, especially after Rugby’s Greatest Rivalry tour against the Springboks, where the All Blacks were clearly second best.

“I think this week was a really good challenge for us as a group. We had an honest look at ourselves after that RGR, and as always, you’re never satisfied, and we probably walked away from that pretty gutted.

“But also knowing that we were playing a brand of rugby that we could be really proud of and really grow on, and to go and get the Bledisloe, and then a real mental challenge this week around owning the standards that we want to live in this team and step up, and I thought we did that for the majority of the game today.”