Following the announcement of Dave Rennie’s All Blacks team to face the Wallabies in the second Bledisloe Cup, here are our winners and losers from his selections.
New Zealand arrive at Accor Stadium in Sydney with the Bledisloe Cup trophy wrapped up for yet another year, which has allowed the coaching team to make several alterations this week.
Rennie has not missed that opportunity with an eye to the upcoming November Nations Championship matches in the northern hemisphere.
Winners
Fabian Holland
Stunningly overlooked for the Eden Park showdown, Fabian Holland gets a fresh opportunity to stamp his mark in the All Blacks jersey. The 2025 World Rugby Breakthrough Player of the Year was a standout performer against the Springboks during Rugby’s Greatest Rivalry series, which made his omission in the fourth Test and the subsequent Bledisloe Cup opener even more puzzling.
After naming his team, Rennie said that the All Blacks are fortunate that they have plenty of depth in the locking department, which is true, but added that the coaching team have asked him to make some ‘shifts’ in his game.
He did not clarify what those shifts were, but the team’s lineout certainly struggled against South Africa but was notably improved with Lord and Scott Barrett running the lineout with Tupou Vaa’i in the six in Auckland. Holland will be tasked with ensuring that remains the case in Sydney while bringing his trademark work-rate and physicality in the collisions.
Beauden Barrett
After being overlooked for the start of the international season, Beauden Barrett will now earn his third successive Test cap for the All Blacks this year and second in the starting XV. Whilst Rennie has made changes to his pack and on the bench, the only alteration in the backline is an enforced change on the wing, with Josh Moorby replacing the injured Leroy Carter.
The eldest Barrett has certainly benefited from the injuries to Ruben Love and Richie Mo’unga, which has forced Damian McKenzie into 10, but when he got his chance against the Wallabies last week, he certainly took it.
He will earn his 147th Test cap on Saturday, and it certainly won’t be his last. Barrett hasn’t been as influential this year as he has been in previous seasons, but write him off at your own peril.
Timoci Tavatavanawai
The selection that All Blacks fans have been crying for as Timoci Tavatavanawai earns his first Test selection under Rennie. The powerhouse Highlanders midfielder is bound to make a huge impact off the bench with his power game, influence at the breakdown and overall brutality.
Tavatavanawai put in some standout performances during Rugby’s Greatest Rivalry tour against the South African United Rugby Championship clubs but didn’t impress the coaching team enough to force his way into the matchday 23. A starting berth was always going to be a stretch with Jordie Barrett and Quinn Tupaea quite clearly a world-class combination and by some distance the best pairing for the All Blacks.
However, this weekend provides a sterling opportunity for Tavatavanawai to prove what he can add to the team, and while Rennie has been reluctant to throw the centre into the mix, he has spoken highly of him.
“Big Jim comes in; he has been great in the environment. He’s got a real point of difference, and we think he can offer a massive impact off the bench,” the head coach said after naming his team.
Du’Plessis Kirifi
The most surprising selection for the Sydney showdown sees Du’Plessis Kirifi earn a spot on the bench despite only joining the squad after the victory over the Wallabies at Eden Park.
The 29-year-old was a standout for the Hurricanes en route to winning their first Super Rugby title since 2016 but was overlooked entirely by Rennie and his coaching team not only for the July Nations Championship fixtures but also for Rugby’s Greatest Rivalry tour.
Instead, the All Blacks coaching team preferred the likes of captain Ardie Savea, Luke Jacobson, Peter Lakai, Wallace Sititi, Ethan Blackadder, Anton Segner and a handful of others. However, with several setbacks in the loose forwards, the snubbed back-rower named after ex-Springboks captain Morne du Plessis gets his opportunity to impress, and one he has earned.
Rennie criticised Kirifi’s penalty count from the Super Rugby Pacific season, citing that as one of the reasons why Segner got the nod instead, but added that there were other areas of his game that needed work. The head coach said the coaching team saw an improvement but also received clips from the Hurricanes’ co-captain showing that he was putting in the extras.
“I guess there’s been a lot of talk about Du’Plessis over the last few months. Look, he’s a hell of a player who had a big season with the Hurricanes,” Rennie said.
“There are a couple of areas that we asked him to work on, especially post-tackle, and it’s more around technical excellence. So, he’s going to get rewarded rather than penalised, and he’s worked really hard in that area. He’s been sending us videos showing him training it and so on.
“With the guys we got missing in Anton, Ardie, Luke and Ethan as well, we felt we needed someone to give us genuine post-tackle presence. Obviously we got Peter Lakai out there, but Du’Plessis can offer something a little bit different.”
He added that his penalty count in the NPC has dropped, with the flanker getting ‘much better reward’ at the breakdown, and his work in that area of the game could be key against the Wallabies with Carlo Tizzano returning to Australia’s bench and offering a similar threat in that facet of the game.
Cortez Ratima
An injury in the tour matches in South Africa robbed Cortez Ratima of the opportunity to feature against the Springboks in the Test series. The Chiefs number nine was the go-to selection as Cam Roigard’s cover during the July Tests, but his untimely setback allowed Kyle Preston to take over that job against the Boks and again versus Australia.
Ratima was always going to have to bide his time for another opportunity and now gets it against the Wallabies in Sydney. Roigard is quite simply the All Blacks’ first-choice scrum-half, but Ratima will know that he will need a good impact off the bench if he is to remain in the mix.
Tupou Vaa’i
The jury is still out on whether Tupou Vaa’i is best suited to be the All Blacks’ first-choice blindside flanker or not, but he gets another opportunity to prove the doubters wrong off the back of what his coach described as his ‘best game in the six jersey’ for the team.
There is no doubting Vaa’i’s quality and considering the aforementioned depth that the team has in the second row, it’s completely understandable that Rennie has opted to utilise his height, weight and physicality on the side of the scrum in a position that the All Blacks have struggled since Jerome Kaino’s retirement.
Vaa’i does have stiff competition now following the return of Shannon Frizell, who is bound to get a crack in the role at some point, but for the time being it’s the Chiefs man’s jersey to lose.
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Wallace Sititi
It’s been a challenging year for Wallace Sititi after his scary head injury during the Super Rugby Pacific season when he took two blows in quick succession and was left convulsing on the ground, before rising to his feet and walking from the field.
That was understandably a physical and mental hurdle that the loose forward had to overcome, and despite managing to recover and remain in the All Blacks squad, his performances were impacted. After an underwhelming shift during the Nations Championship, he was dropped by Rennie, who disclosed that there were areas of his game that needed attention, and while that was yet another setback, it was one he overcame again to earn a place on the bench for the final two RGR Tests against the Boks.
With the injuries racking up in New Zealand’s back-row, Sititi was handed an opportunity to start for the first time since the win over Italy, and he rose to the occasion, producing perhaps his best in black this year, earning the praise of legendary winger Jeff Wilson.
Losers
Josh Lord
The lock depth meant that there was always going to be a loser from the second-row when Rennie unveiled his team, particularly with the coaching staff’s preference for two back-rowers on the bench. Last week, Holland was the loser, and this time around it is Josh Lord.
The 25-year-old was rewarded for his performance in Baltimore with a start at Eden Park but didn’t exactly make the most of his opportunity and has paid the price for that by being dropped for the fixture in Sydney.
Rennie has regularly backed consistency in selection, when possible, during his first year in charge, but it is quite clear that the All Blacks have depth at lock and players have to perform if they are to retain their position.
Leroy Carter
After being exploited in defence by the Springboks in the third Rugby’s Greatest Rivalry Series Test match, Leroy Carter looked to redeem himself at Eden Park with a sterling performance, but that was cruelly ended by a hip drop tackle that has ruled him out of this weekend’s fixture. It’s the kind of injury that has forced a law tweak from World Rugby, with the winger now set for an extended spell on the sidelines.
Anton Segner
Injuries have hit the rookie All Blacks back-row at the worst times this year after he had an uninterrupted Super Rugby Pacific season. Anton Segner shone in the touring matches against the URC clubs before his first setback denied him the chance of tackling the Springboks, and upon his return to the team against the Wallabies, he sustained a concussion.
He will surely feature for New Zealand in November, provided that his concussion isn’t too serious, but one still cannot help but feel sorry for the German-born loose forward.
Tyrel Lomax
For a second week in a row, Rennie and his staff have deemed Tyrel Lomax surplus to requirements. The All Blacks boss has spoken about the physical and mental toll the RGR series had on the squad, and that’s perhaps one of the contributing factors to the tighthead prop’s absence after he featured in all four Test matches.
When Lomax is at his best, he is comfortably among the top tighthead props in the world, but he certainly hasn’t hit those highs this year. His long injury lay-off during the Super Rugby season has surely played a role in that, especially considering that he missed the 2025 November internationals.
This week, Rennie has opted to retain Fletcher Newell and Pasilio Tosi in the tighthead roles, and it’s hard to argue against that considering how little of an influence the scrum played at Eden Park.
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Lomax is bound to get back into the mix in the northern hemisphere, and the All Blacks may well be better off for the decision to rest him these two weeks, with Tosi and Newell gaining further experience while he recovers and prepares to finish the season strongly.
Josh Jacomb
There is no starker experience gap in the All Blacks and Wallabies teams selected for this weekend than at fly-half. Damian McKenzie will earn his 83rd cap on Saturday, with his back-up Beauden Barrett earning his 147th at full-back. On the opposite side of the scale, Declan Meredith earns his fourth Test cap whilst his replacement, Harry McLaughlin-Phillips, is in line to make his debut.
The gulf in experience suggests that Rennie could have given Josh Jacomb a crack this weekend, perhaps even off the bench, particularly after his performances at number 10 in the RGR tour matches.
Rennie has instead passed on that opportunity and opted for consistency and handed McKenzie a second opportunity in the first-five position, with Jacomb having to wait until November for his Test debut.
“We want consistency,” the head coach explained.
“We’re not sure whether Richie is going to make it back in time for the end-of-year tour, and Damian has only had one hit at 10. So, we think that the majority of the guys out there will get another run. We considered it [selecting Jacomb]; he’s likely to tour at the end of the year and get his opportunity.”