mens
international
When All black people Ardie Save captain left the field injured on Saturday at the FNB Stadium, Luke Jacobson took over as captain only to also suffer a tour-ending injury. He also lost Quinn Tupae in the Test at left New Zealand with a significant hole in their leadership group heading into the decisive final test in Baltimore.
It’s a lack of leadership that both supersub Wallace Sititi and head coach Dave Rennie admit will hurt the team, which faces a 2-1 deficit after back-to-back defeats in Cape Town and Soweto.
Savea’s 112 Tests gave way to Peter Lakai’s 13 in the No.8 shirt, while Jacobson’s 30 was replaced by Ethan Blackadder’s 14. Sititi, who now has 22 Tests to his name, will provide a kick off the bench for the second consecutive game in the decider.
“Obviously, we have a great caliber back there with Luke and Ardie and even Quinn,” the explosive loose forward told reporters earlier this week in Washington.
“So we’re definitely losing a lot – a bit of quality there. At the same time, there’s a lot of competition here in that loose forward group, and obviously there’s a few young guys in there, but also a bit of experience. So we’ve been together long enough to know that when it’s time to step up, it’s your time to step up, and we’ll make sure we hold each other to account where Ardi and Luke are equal.”
Codie Taylor will return to the captain’s role against the Springboks at M&T Bank Stadium with a historic tour result on the line, after he sat out the third Test. Rennie said backing Taylor as Savea’s replacement was an easy decision.
“Well, he’s the captain of the tour, so it made sense for us,” the coach said. “Obviously, we lost a lot of experience over the weekend, with Luke and Ardie out. With both of them unavailable, we felt Codie coming back – he’s a great player and gives us a lot of leadership and experience, and that was really valuable all week.
“We’ve got Asafo (Aumu) coming in late in the game to make an impact.”
Taylor’s leadership was not the only factor affecting preparations this week, with what Sititi described as a “stern review” of the Soweto defeat setting the tone on Tuesday.
“Every game is a must-win in this black jersey, in this environment,” Sititi added. “So that’s the mindset we’re going into this weekend. We’ve had a pretty tough review and now it’s about moving forward. We’ve got a big test on Saturday.”
“I think our penalty count definitely needs to improve. I think it was even, the penalty count between the two teams, but the Springboks just took the opportunities a little bit better than us.”
“Anywhere you give away penalties, it’s always a problem. And I guess we’re just giving them easy entries into our 22, and like I said, they’re capitalizing a little bit better than us.”
“It’s a little bit of thought, a little bit of accuracy. The rules are there for a reason, and we have to make sure we follow them as much as possible. And when we get a ping from the referee, we have to be able to adjust there. And right now, we’re just not doing that well enough.”
