{"id":1102588,"date":"2026-07-21T13:07:45","date_gmt":"2026-07-21T13:07:45","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/1102588\/"},"modified":"2026-07-21T13:07:45","modified_gmt":"2026-07-21T13:07:45","slug":"all-blacks-great-proven-completely-wrong-by-dave-rennies-successful-experiment","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/1102588\/","title":{"rendered":"All Blacks great proven ‘completely wrong’ by Dave Rennie’s successful experiment"},"content":{"rendered":"

Justin Marshall is pleased that he was proven wrong by Dave Rennie\u2019s selection of Tupou Vaa\u2019i at blindside flanker for the All Blacks\u2019 clash against Ireland<\/a>.<\/b><\/p>\n

The Chiefs forward is primarily a lock but was deployed in the number six jumper in New Zealand\u2019s final Nations Championship clash this July at Eden Park against the Irish and put in a strong performance as the All Blacks charged to a 40-21 victory.<\/p>\n

Marshall had his reservations about the selection in the build-up to the match as he believed that Vaa\u2019i was better suited to start in the second-row in Rennie\u2019s team. Instead, the head coach welcomed the return of Patrick Tuipulotu from injury and selected him alongside Josh Lord.<\/p>\n

Jeff Wilson hails returning All Blacks lock\u2019s performance<\/p>\n

The Blues veteran played 57 minutes on his return for the All Blacks<\/a>, scored a try and got through a ton of work around the park. His shift caught the eye of legendary winger Jeff Wilson, who believes that he is just the kind of player that New Zealand needs for the Tests against the Springboks next month.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe rivalry with Ireland was a bit underplayed during the week by everybody, because we shouldn\u2019t forget what Ireland has done to us in recent times, and they came to New Zealand with a lot of confidence,\u201d Wilson<\/a> said on Sky Sport NZ\u2019s Breakdown show.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere were several players who were presented with massive opportunities. I want to talk about one in particular, and that\u2019s Patrick Tuipulotu because, for me, we\u2019ve not cited him. In fact, he\u2019d hardly played any Super Rugby, and then the moment you thought he was going to get back out there, he picked up a niggly calf injury.<\/p>\n

\u201cSo what do they do? They trust him to go out and start at lock against Ireland, and he has an outstanding shift. Now I never expected him to play 80 minutes. I thought he would go 40, 45, 50 and Tupou Vaa\u2019i<\/a> would slot back into the lock position, but for me, a statement was made.\u00a0 He is a big body who we are going to need in South Africa. I think they recognised that and it was impressive.<\/p>\n

\u201cSo I think there were several players that were presented with opportunities. Quinn Tupaea was one at centre, prove yourself. Patrick, prove yourself.\u201d<\/p>\n

All Blacks player ratings: Tupou Vaa\u2019i a \u2018ubiquitous presence\u2019 and Damian McKenzie in \u2018best display\u2019 as Dave Rennie\u2019s big calls \u2018pay off\u2019<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

Dave Rennie\u2019s Tupou Vaa\u2019i experiment<\/p>\n

The panel\u2019s discussion then turned to Rennie\u2019s trial of Vaa\u2019i at blindside flanker in the fixture in Auckland. Wilson was wary of getting too carried away after just one game but believes that he could be the player to take on the number six jersey going forward.<\/p>\n

\u201cOff the back of that performance, I don\u2019t want to get caught up in recency bias, but knowing what\u2019s in front of us and coming up, I\u2019d like to think they continue with him there,\u201d the ex-winger said<\/a>.<\/p>\n

All Blacks coach makes candid revelation on what he expects from South African tour<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

\u201cThere are a lot of similar-type athletes, Peter Lakai, Wallace Sititi, but they don\u2019t have the size that Tupou Vaa\u2019i has. I liken him more to Shannon Frizell, who\u2019s a bigger, taller body, a genuine lineout option. He has that ability to dent the line in the inside and match a little bit of fire with fire. And the competitiveness for me.<\/p>\n

\u201cI liked it; I thought he delivered. He was a guy who people had question marks about. He put his hand up, and he looked great in the outside channel. That was the first question, and man, he\u2019s got some big strides.\u201d<\/p>\n

Want more from Planet Rugby? Add us as a preferred source on Google to your favourites list<\/a> for world-class coverage you can trust.<\/p>\n

Marshall admits he had his doubts about Vaa\u2019i playing on the side of the scrum and in the wider channels for the side, but he was happy to be proven wrong.<\/p>\n

\u201cI had some question marks, and I did say that in our previous show. I said I know why, and they explained the selection, but my problem for him is playing lock; he goes narrow, and he\u2019ll gravitate towards the ruck,\u201d the former number nine explained.<\/p>\n

\u201cHis ball skill was going to be questioned. He completely proved me wrong, and I\u2019m glad he did.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf you watch the movements in the game, he operated on the edges really well. His carries were good, his offloads were there, and then the physicality and the lineout execution were perfect. Absolutely rapt that they got that selection right, and it\u2019s a real consideration now moving forward. I\u2019m happy to be proven wrong. Doesn\u2019t happen very often.\u201d<\/p>\n

READ MORE:\u00a0<\/b>All Blacks hero\u2019s bullish Greatest Rivalry prediction: Dave Rennie\u2019s men will get \u2018sick of winning\u2019<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Justin Marshall is pleased that he was proven wrong by Dave Rennie\u2019s selection of Tupou Vaa\u2019i at blindside…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":1102589,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[4102],"tags":[225,90462,678,13878,45541,228523,704,12,4151,2196,79,18133,16,15],"class_list":["post-1102588","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-rugby","tag-home-page","tag-internationals","tag-ireland","tag-jeff-wilson","tag-justin-marshall","tag-nations-championship","tag-new-zealand","tag-news","tag-rugby","tag-south-africa","tag-sports","tag-tupou-vaa","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/116958124480122437","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1102588","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1102588"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1102588\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1102589"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1102588"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1102588"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1102588"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}