All Blacks players during Springboks series and head coach Dave Rennie.
Former All Blacks star Murray Mexted believes that new boss Dave Rennie is already beginning to weed out some of the players who will not be involved at the Rugby World Cup next year.
The 62-year-old only took charge in March after Scott Robertson was sacked, which means that he only had 18 months to prepare for the global tournament.
Rennie therefore has to quickly find out the individuals that are good enough for the highest level and fit into the way he wants to play.
There has been plenty of rotation since their opening Test of the season against France in the Nations Championship and Mexted reckons that he has learned plenty.
Defeat to the Springboks
Perhaps the most instructive part of the campaign came in South Africa where the All Blacks succumbed to the Springboks in Rugby’s Greatest Rivalry series.
They went down 3-1 to the back-to-back world champions and the ex-number eight insists that Rennie would have learned plenty about his squad.
“It’s been a tough time for the last month. I remember before the tour of South Africa a lot of people were just assuming we were going to go over there and win two out of the three in the Republic and then go off to the States and win that one as well,” he told the DSPN Rugby podcast with Martin Devlin.
“I didn’t want to be pessimistic but I thought that was a tall ask. It’s been a tough time and I think the selectors are all finding their feet at this level because the level is bigger than Super Rugby.
“That’s the one thing we need to take away from this last season; Super Rugby isn’t actually the yardstick for success at international level.”
Dave Rennie hits out at ‘crazy’ Rugby World Cup draw as likely Springboks clash ‘hard to believe’
Bledisloe Cup retained but improvement needed
The All Blacks bounced back from their series loss to the Springboks by retaining the Bledisloe Cup with a 50-19 triumph at Eden Park.
They will be looking to secure a 2-0 success over their trans-Tasman rivals in Sydney, but Mexted knows that Rennie’s men still need vast improvement if they are to World Cup contenders next year.
“With the World Cup coming, what we’ve just experienced we needed. We know there’s another 10 to 15 per cent we’ve got to get better at least,” he said.
“I think we’re aware of that, I think the selectors are making their changes. Dave Rennie is not accustomed to making as many changes as he has, but there are a lot of people putting up their hand up now which is really encouraging.
“Some people will be culled and we’re already seeing that and that’s the way it is, so you’ve got to put your best foot forward. We’ve had a fantastic series which we didn’t do so well in but it did expose a lot.”