Rennie vows All Blacks will carry attacking blueprint into 2027 Rugby World Cup

Dave Rennie has doubled down on his pledge to take an all-out attacking game plan into the 2027 Rugby World Cup, speaking after the All Blacks completed a dominant Bledisloe Cup series with a cumulative 93-40 victory over Australia.

The two-Test sweep featured a record ball-in-play time of 59 minutes in Sydney — eclipsing the previous record by 13 minutes — with the sides not packing down for their first scrum until the 31st minute. The approach stood in sharp contrast to New Zealand’s earlier series against South Africa, where set-piece dominance proved decisive.

“I do believe that. I mean, there’s no point playing this way and then going to a World Cup and trying to play risk-free footy,” Rennie said after the Sydney win. “We’re well aware you can put yourself under pressure the way that we’re trying to play, but we also back ourselves to profit more than we’ll suffer in those situations.”

Rennie acknowledged the stylistic alignment between New Zealand and Australia, suggesting both sides share a point of difference from the rest of the world. “I don’t think you want all the teams in the world playing the same game,” he said. “If you look at the Wallabies, they’re pretty similar to us. I think they’ll want to play, and it’s part of the DNA of both sides.”

The commitment is a bold one given All Blacks history at World Cups. Their back-to-back titles in 2011 and 2015 were built on pragmatism as much as flair — the 2011 final against France was decided 8-7 by a penalty goal, while 2015 featured a tight semi-final against South Africa and Dan Carter’s famous drop goal in the final against Australia. In 2023, New Zealand scored the only try of the final against South Africa but lost 12-11 as the Springboks accumulated four penalty goals.

Rennie insisted the current squad is still a work in progress, with the 2027 tournament providing the longer runway he needs. “If you want to just get into arm wrestles with a couple of the big sides in the world, it’ll be a struggle,” he said. “We’re trying to grow our game — we’ve got a long way to go — but we just want to be able to play at a tempo that will test other sides.”

The All Blacks were forced to dig deep into their squad to cover injuries throughout the tour, yet still produced commanding results against Australia, a sign Rennie took as encouragement that the foundation for 2027 is being laid ahead of schedule.