All Blacks legend Sir John Kirwan expects Dave Rennie to continue to place an emphasis on size when they face the Springboks next month.
New Zealand tour South Africa in August ahead of four Tests against the back-to-back world champions.
It will provide a stern examination of the All Blacks under Rennie, who only took over earlier this year after Scott Robertson was sacked.
The early signs have been promising, winning successive matches against France, Italy and Ireland, but the head coach is not resting on his laurels.
He tried a few different combinations in the southern leg of the Nations Championship while keeping the core of the team together.
Make-up of the pack
Perhaps the most significant was moving Tupou Vaa’i to blindside flanker and bringing in Patrick Tuipulotu at lock to beef up an already big pack.
“With the Rivalry tour coming up, you’ve got to match South Africa up front, you’ve got to match their physicality, you need to be brutal and we need big men,” Kirwan said on the Rivals podcast.
“It’s probably impossible to have as many big men as South Africa, but you’ve got to match that physicality and I’m pretty sure they’ve got one eye on South Africa with their selections, especially with Tupou.
“I’ve had the privilege to spend some time with Tupou and he is an absolute gem of a guy.
“He calls the lineouts, is a real smart rugby player, smart man, very quietly spoken but also got that little bit of an enforcer in him.”
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Although the Springboks have expanded their game, they still rely on the key fundamentals of scrum, lineout, maul, defence and kicking.
Halting the Springboks’ momentum
“If we’re going to South Africa and want any chance to win, we’ve got to match them up front. When you watch that Welsh game, I don’t think they stopped the Springboks before the advantage line at all,” Kirwan said.
“If you don’t do that to South Africa, they’re going to get a roll on, the only way you can stop those big men is actually smacking them up front so they can’t run onto the ball at 100 mph.”
“The combinations I agree with. We’ve got plenty of options at loose forward. Patrick has probably been really unlucky with injuries, so he’s never really had a flow-on,” he added.
“He didn’t start Super Rugby this year until round 10, but he’s a big man, he’s got great feet, he runs hard and I think that’s why they’re playing him. I think him and Tupou will stay there, I think it’s a good combination.
“It gives you so many more lineout options. You’ve got a really big man in the loose forwards, so I think the combination’s good.”
