AUCKLAND — Jeff Wilson believes the All Blacks' mounting injury toll is no surprise as Dave Rennie's side throw themselves into contact "consistently more than I've seen from an All Black team", with the head coach demanding greater physicality in defence. The assessment follows New Zealand retaining the Bledisloe Cup with a 50-19 triumph over the Wallabies in Auckland last weekend, despite being without a host of key personnel.
New Zealand have already lost Ardie Savea and Ruben Love for the season, while Luke Jacobson, Anton Lienert-Brown, Billy Proctor, Patrick Tuipulotu and Caleb Clarke missed the wider Bledisloe Cup training squad through injury. Richie Mo'unga was then ruled out of the two Wallabies games and could miss the Nations Championship, joined on the sidelines by Leroy Carter, Anton Segner, Asafo Aumua, Ethan Blackadder and Fehi Fineanganofo. "Friendly fire when you get a head clash (Segner and Aumua), you can't avoid that… but there's no doubt they're asking them to put their bodies on the line and they're certainly throwing themselves into contact, consistently more than I've seen from an All Black team," Wilson said on The Breakdown.
"Particularly defensively, we were a little bit on our heels from time to time over the last couple of years, but there's none of that. They're trying to improve themselves in the tackle," Wilson added. "Head clash, two guys coming around, which ruled two players out, that's just unlucky, but overall we're turning to our depth and our depth is going well." Rennie has continually rotated since taking over from the sacked Scott Robertson earlier this year, with the Rugby World Cup now under a year away, and the lengthy list is slightly reminiscent of his time with Australia where he continually saw players go down.
Despite the absentees, the All Blacks were boosted by the return of Scott Barrett last weekend, who had not played since last November after a non-playing sabbatical and back surgery in May which ruled him out for five months. The former skipper impressed on his Test comeback in Auckland and will start again in Sydney on Saturday. Fellow All Blacks great Justin Marshall praised his work ethic, saying: "He showed how much work ethic he's got in him and you need that within the side. What we tend to do is show the things that people see as being relevant, which is the carry metres and the hardness and the toughness in defence, but what you don't see in the middle is the work ethic in the cleanouts."
Marshall added: "If you went through that game again and just watched him at clean, that's the reason we can get tempo ball, because guys like Scott Barrett are hitting those rucks and moving bodies, and we're punching onto the ball. Without a shadow of the doubt, the hardest part of the field to play through is the middle and I thought the fact that the All Blacks were able to play with width was because of what Scott Barrett did through the middle and Wallace Sititi. That's Scott Barrett down to the ground." The depth will again be tested in Sydney, with Rennie continuing to juggle combinations following McKenzie keeping the All Blacks' No.10 shirt as Rennie rings the changes.