Dave Rennie has torn a page out of the old All Blacks playbook. For the biggest night of his short reign — Ireland at a sold-out Eden Park on Saturday — the New Zealand coach dropped in-form loose forward Wallace Sititi, shifted captain Ardie Savea to No.8 and moved Tupou Vaa'i to blindside flank, a reshuffle that has divided the country's sharpest analysts.
Sititi, one of the breakout forwards of the past two seasons, pays for a quiet outing against Italy. Rennie made no attempt to dress it up.
"It's fair to say he wasn't at his best last weekend," Rennie said. "He was pretty good off the bench the week before and there's a lot of competition for places there."
The coach insisted the young forward remained central to his plans, but confirmed he had spelled out exactly what he wants from him.
"He will play a lot of footy for us this year, but he's got a reasonably clear message around what we need to see out of him and I'm really happy with the response we've got from him so far this week," Rennie said.
At halfback and first-five Rennie has backed the young Hurricanes pair of Cam Roigard and Ruben Love to run the biggest fixture on the calendar. Savea, who has known both since their early days in Wellington, brushed aside any doubt about their nerve.
"They've been ready since the get-go," the skipper said. "I've had the privilege to be with them in their early days in the Hurricanes and they're dogs; they just locked in."
Savea is under no illusions about the occasion, with Ireland arriving among the world's form sides.
"The next All Blacks Test is the biggest Test and it just happens to be here," he said. "We don't fear it but it's a great challenge for us."
The louder debate this week has been less about personnel than identity. Former Scotland coach and pundit Matt Williams argued Rennie has quietly binned the polished, marketing-friendly image New Zealand rugby spent years selling — and that rivals should be worried.
"There is a really positive attitude in New Zealand, in the New Zealand national team, that should put fear into the rest of us because it's a bit of the old school," Williams said on Off The Ball. "New Zealand were not pleasant guys to play against."
Williams did not hide his contempt for the old branding, calling the endless heart-warming advertisements "embarrassing as a rugby player and a rugby coach to listen to."
Not everyone is convinced by the selection maths. On Sky Sport's The Breakdown, former All Blacks halfback Justin Marshall took aim at the decision to keep Savea out of a specialist No.8 role.
"I want to see a genuine out-and-out No.8. Ardie is not that. He's a hybrid," Marshall said. He pointed to a lack of direct scrum ball as evidence: "In the first two test matches this year, he has not come off the back of a scrum once. Not one carry off the back."
Marshall's fix was the very player Rennie left out — Sititi at the base, with Savea free to roam. Rennie has gone the other way. Eden Park, where the All Blacks have not lost since 1994, will deliver the verdict.
