Nations Championship: All Blacks beef up in quest for quality as efficient Ireland present significant test
Saturday, 18 July 2026
What: Nations Championship, round three, All Blacks v Ireland. Where: Eden Park, Auckland. When: 7.10pm Saturday, Sky Sport 1.
For the first two weeks Dave Rennie’s All Blacks have been, to pluck from the vernacular of Gen Z, meh. That is to say neither horrible, nor excellent, but rather stuck in a middle ground of mediocrity and predictability that was enough to win games, but not necessarily admirers.
That, surely, has to change in week three, when Ireland come to Eden Park with high hopes of making more history at the All Blacks’ expense in a compelling matchup between two of the undefeated sides in this fledgling Nations Championship.
The All Blacks surely must be a lot closer to excellent, even great, this week to preserve that fabulous 52-test, 32-year Eden Park undefeated record and keep pace with those mighty Springboks in the race for top spot in the southern championship pool.
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You have to think that the piecemeal efforts of the previous fortnight, good enough to fend off the under-strength French in a tight contest, and to kick clear of the Italians in less of one, will not be good enough this week. Not with pragmatic, hard-nosed, self-assured Ireland in town, sniffing more special at Kiwis’ expense.
Rennie’s men have started safely, but slowly. And that is to be expected. Any change in coaching staff always requires a bedding-in period for new ideas, systems and mindsets. And July typically never finds the All Blacks at their best as players transition from Super Rugby mode to the tighter, tougher, trickier requirements of test footy.
The All Blacks had too many defensive slipups to be satisfied with their 34-32 squeaker against France, and last week in Wellington they produced probably 17 minutes of quality rugby after an uncomfortable first half, before things got messy, and the coach frustrated.
This week it must be better. And Rennie has, around an upsizing of his pack, stuck with a formula that should give his players every chance to be just that. Key playmakers Ruben Love and Damian McKenzie get a third straight week as the starting Nos 10 and 15, respectively, and that’s a deliberate ploy. Beauden Barrett remains on the backburner. They have every chance to deliver on their coach’s faith.
The record-setting Will Jordan, Jordie Barrett and Cam Roigard remain in place as the class acts, and linchpins, of the backline, and around them Josh Moorby and Quinn Tupaea get deserved cracks to nail down long-term starting roles. The latter two, especially, have a lot to play for.
Up front, bigger is better. Tyrel Lomax appears reinstalled as No 1 tighthead prop, Patrick Tuipulotu gets another crack at bringing the physicality that his body has so often denied him and the Tupou Vaa’i experiment at 6 rolls around for a third time. It has yet to prove a resounding success, so we watch closely.
Rennie appears sold on Luke Jacobson at No 7, and for now he and the redoubtable Ardie Savea form the basis of a starting loose trio which has the ultra-talented Peter Lakai and hardworking Anton Segner both lurking on the bench (with Vaa’i set to move to second row late-test). Maybe this is the week Rennie hits on his formula off the pine, with highly motivated game-changers lurking en masse.
The loose trio feels like a work in progress. Wallace Sititi pays the price for bad handling lapses last week, and Rennie has another look at finding the “balance” required at test level.
“They’re all a little different,” notes Rennie of his back row. “It’s not like your 7 has to be a fetcher. Luke has been great, he’s physical, and we like the balance of what we’ve got there. We’ve got a genuine lineout option in Tupes, absolute graft in Luke, and an athlete making impact on both sides of the ball in Ardie. It’s a good mix.”
Rennie is searching for something from his All Blacks. He wants to play a game of pace, of width, of “optimism”, but he needs it to be balanced by “brutality” at the breakdown, by big men making inroads down route one to fracture defences, and by dominance at set piece and in the tackle.
Ireland will assuredly test his men. They arrive on a six-test win streak and, after speculation they may have hit the slippery slope post-World Cup, appear to have made a decent fist of reorganising themselves. They remain a true quality outfit, with enough survivors from their historic 2022 series victory in New Zealand to understand the formula required.
“We know where they're coming,” said Rennie. “They’ve got a good kicking game and will apply pressure through that, and there’s a lot of detail within their attack. They’ve got a good short passing game and they’re prepared to go multi-phase. Our job is to defend so they’re below their best, and profit off that.
“We’ve got to be prepared to play through them, squeeze them up and pick ‘em off, as opposed to going wide at every opportunity. We’re going to have to bar up big time at set piece. They’re an excellent side with genuine confidence. We’re building, and we need to be better than last week.”
Quite. Meh just won’t cut the mustard this week.
All Blacks: Damian McKenzie, Will Jordan, Quinn Tupaea, Jordie Barrett, Josh Moorby, Ruben Love, Cam Roigard; Ardie Savea (capt), Luke Jacobson, Tupou Vaa’i, Patrick Tuipulotu, Josh Lord, Tyrel Lomax, Codie Taylor, Ethan de Groot. Reserves: Asafo Aumua, Xavier Numia, Fletcher Newell, Anton Segner, Peter Lakai, Cortez Ratima, Anton Lienert-Brown, Caleb Clarke.
Ireland: Hugo Keenan, Robert Baloucoune, Garry Ringrose, Stuart McCloskey, Jimmy O’Brien, Sam Prendergast, Jamison Gibson-Park; Jack Conan, Josh van der Flier, Tadhg Beirne, James Ryan, Joe McCarthy, Tadhg Furlong, Dan Sheehan (capt), Tom O’Toole. Reserves: Ronan Kelleher, Jeremy Loughman, Thomas Clarkson, Nick Timoney, Sean Jansen, Craig Casey, Ciaran Frawley, Bundee Aki.
Referee: Nic Berry (Australia).