The All Blacks have made three changes to their starting team for Saturday’s second Rugby’s Greatest Rivalry test against the Springboks, with two of them forced by injury and one positional switch.
The only unenforced change is also the only change to the backline that did so well against the Boks in Johannesburg, with Leroy Parker coming in on the left wing. He comes in for Josh Moorby, who will play this game off the bench, with coach Dave Rennie explaining the change by saying that Parker’s defence was a bit better than Moorby’s.
Up front George Bower, who was part of an improved All Black scrum effort once he came onto the field, will start this time in place of the injured Ethan de Groot, who is still subject to HIA protocols and will not play until he has been cleared. De Groot was injured after clashing with his teammate Josh Lord, who was unavailable and his place has been taken by Tupuo Vaa’i, who moves from the blindside flank position he occupied last week in Johannesburg.
In two necessary changes to the bench, Xavier Numia comes in to provide prop cover because of the loss of De Groot, while Lord’s unavailability means that Patrick Tuipoluto comes onto the bench as lock cover. Tuipolotu, who led the All Blacks against the 10Bet Lions on Tuesday, is one of five players who will be backing up from that 41-35 win.
After announcing his team, Rennie stressed that even though his team won last week, they all knew a significant improvement will be needed if they are to take a 2-0 lead in the series.
“The biggest mistake would be thinking that what we did last week will be enough,” said Rennie. “Last week was a real arm-wrestle that could have gone either way and we are expecting something similar this week. We expect the Boks to be better than they were in Johannesburg, and we know we will have to be better ourselves. We are preparing to be better than we were at Ellis Park.”
Rennie repeated what he said earlier in the week about being wary of a potential Bok backlash from the disappointment they would have felt after their loss last week. He said what was potentially coming from the Boks was something that had been discussed in team meetings. In particular, he said everyone in the squad was very aware of what had happened last year, when an All Black win at Eden Park in Auckland was followed by a massive 43-10 win for the Boks in Wellington a week later.
“We are aware of the potential for a bounce back and we know they will be bitterly disappointed after the loss last week,” said the All Black coach.
“There has been a lot of talk around how they bounced back last year (outside the camp as in the media) and we have touched on it. We are very aware of just how tough the Boks can be when they are at their very best. We know we are going to have to lift our level. But we don’t want to focus completely on South Africa. We know there are things we need to do ourselves so we are focusing on that.”
New Zealand team: Damian McKenzie, Will Jordan, Quinn Tupaea, Jordie Barrett, Leroy Carter, Ruben Love, Cam Roigard, Ardie Savea (captain), Luke Jacobson, Simon Parker, Tupou Vaa’i, Fabian Holland, Tyrel Lomax, Codie Taylor, George Bower. Replacements: Asafo Aumua, Xavier Numia, Fletcher Newell, Patrick Tuipulotu, Peter Lakai, Kyle Preston, Anton Lienert-Brown, Josh Moorby.