Coach Rennie on All Blacks' win: 'We're going to have to do a lot of work'

<p>The extent of the challenge faced by the All Blacks on their tour of South Africa was laid bare by the Stormers in Cape Town this morning, with head coach Dave Rennie admitting: “We’re going to have to do a lot of work”.</p> <p>Rennie, not surprisingly, wanted a flawless start to the tour but instead watched as his side occasionally reverted to type on their way to <a href="https://www.1news.co.nz/2026/08/08/reality-bites-as-all-blacks-struggle-to-subdue-stormers/" target="_blank">beating a limited Stormers side 38-21 </a>and only after the home side all but ran out of puff in the final quarter.</p> <p>A lack of discipline – the All Blacks conceded nine penalties in the first half alone – a failure to consistently deal with the high ball, and a scrum which was put under pressure by the Stormers all conspired to put the handbrake on a compelling start by the visitors.</p> <p>The start will be one of the positives for Rennie – the All Blacks displaying sharpness and occasional brutality on both sides of the ball – but they could not sustain it, the home side more than happy to go from set piece to penalty and vice versa to suck the life from the game during the middle 40 minutes.</p> <p>Rennie will make wholesale changes to the team to play the Sharks in Durban on Wednesday morning NZT which will likely improve the scrum, but the overall performance will not have worried the Springboks, currently in Argentina preparing to play the Pumas, in the slightest.</p> <p>A regular diet of high balls and lineout drives are coming for this team for their remaining seven games in South Africa and few can build an almost irresistible momentum off the back of that like the world champions.</p> <p>“We know other teams are going to come there and we’re going to have to do a better job on stopping momentum initially – not allowing them to piggyback [on penalties],” Rennie said.</p> <p>“They were all things that we expected and we would have liked to have dealt with them a little bit better, but just a heap of character [to recover from that]… we felt if we held the ball we could eventually find space and hurt them and we were very clinical late in the game.</p> <p>“It’s exciting,” Rennie added. “We wanted to be flawless tonight and we know we can be a lot better. We only have to wait four days to get another crack at it. I’m excited about the games coming up and they will give us an indication of what our best line-up is for that first Test.”</p> <p>The All Blacks conceded three yellow cards in the second half but two of them were debatable, to put it mildly.</p> <p>Anton Lienert-Brown was alleged to have made contact with an opponent’s head when making a tackle near his tryline but such contacts happen week-in, week-out in senior club rugby without even a penalty. Referee Karl Dickson sent him to the sinbin.</p> <p>Likewise, fullback Josh Moorby’s for failing to release a tackled player appeared a little harsh; Moorby was behind his tryline at the finish of the contact which would have negated the need to release a player attempting to score.</p> <p>Simon Parker’s, for a maul offence, came after a string of transgressions.</p> <p>The good news among the ugly stuff from an All Blacks’ point of view was the performance of lock Fabian Holland on his return, plus the form that loose forwards Peter Lakai and Anton Segner are in. Both were outstanding, the latter after being a late inclusion due to Wallace Sititi’s illness.</p> <p>Hooker Samisoni Taukei’aho and replacement Asafo Aumua were also standouts, with outside backs Rieko Ioane, Josh Moorby and Leroy Carter making key interventions.</p> <p>Meanwhile, Caleb Clarke, moved from the bench to the left wing in the second half, looked a little out of sorts and Beauden Barrett, not used at all last month, had a mixed performance, as did centre Billy Proctor, who went off with a shoulder injury.</p> <p>Fortunately, Josh Jacomb, Barrett’s replacement, looked extremely assured on debut.</p> <p>Meanwhile, the All Blacks are looking forward to <a href="https://www.1news.co.nz/2026/08/08/all-blacks-set-for-stirring-reunion-as-maa-nonu-joins-sharks-bench/" target="_blank">reuniting with Ma’a Nonu</a>, the 44-year-old midfielder who has somehow been named on the bench for the Sharks after agreeing to help with the franchise's player development programme.</p> <p>Skipper Patrick Tuipulotu said of Nonu, a two-time World Cup winner: “His career has been so long because he’s a true professional of the game. I think it will be quite a spectacle to see him come up against us. We’ll certainly look forward to that. We might catch up with him midweek and give him a jab or two.”</p>