Elliott Smith: Newstalk ZB Rugby Commentator previews the opening game of the Greatest Rivalry Tour against the Stormers

The All Blacks begin their first tour of South Africa for 30 years in Cape Town against the Stormers, a team they have never played in their modern form. 

Dave Rennie named an experimental side for the test, with Patrick Tuipulotu as the captain and Siale Lauaki and Josh Jacomb scheduled to debut off the bench. 

And an illness has forced a late change to the team, Anton Segner replacing Wallace Sititi as openside flanker while Peter Lakai moves to number eight. 

Newstalk ZB’s Voice of Rugby Elliott Smith told Mike Hosking that Rennie has pretty much locked in his team for the first clash against the Springboks, but has been open that there’s room to move. 

He says a handful of players such as Tuipulotu, Fabian Holland, and potentially Peter Lakai and Anton Segner could be in conversation for that team. 

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Eight match South Africa Tour kicks off this weekend, All
black Side and All black Side takes on the Stormersman
Elliot Smith's there, Elliot, how are you feeling, Mike.

Speaker 2 (00:09):
I'm frilling good.

Speaker 1 (00:09):
Good. They sorted that ticket issue. I'm reading there were
thousands of tickets left. What's going on there?

Speaker 2 (00:15):
I think they might have overpriced the opening game of
the series, so look that they'll get a few more
in because the words gone out that obviously it hasn't
been full and perhaps some people thought it might have
already sold out, but probably wouldn't be a great look
if they have a huge amount of empty seats for
this opening game. I think the word on the street
here is that they've overpriced tickets for the tour games

(00:38):
top dollar obviously for the test matches, but maybe they've
clipped the ticket a little bit too much on these
early games in the series for what fans can afford.

Speaker 1 (00:46):
This wider squad, how many in there, genuinely if they
play well, have a chance to make the big dance.

Speaker 2 (00:53):
Handful. I would say toy, Plotto, Fabi and Holland are
probably in the conversation to have a role in the tests.
There are other players that are probably playing for bench
spots in all honesty, a Peter Lukeye potentially and Anton
Signa who's coming overnight due to illness. So I think
few and far between. Dave Rennie is pretty much locked
in that team for the first test in a couple

(01:15):
of weeks time. But look, he's been open that there
is room to move and performances do count, and they'll
want to get some of these players just get in
game time more than anything, because four weeks in a
row against South Africa, I don't think you can roll
out your top team in each of those tests weeks.
So they will have to go into the well and
dig it a little deeper into the squad at some

(01:35):
point over the series.

Speaker 1 (01:36):
This game, there's another one against the Hollywood bet Sharks.
The marketing department need to think about that. But anyway,
be that as it may, So what's the thing behind
waiting so long for a test? They just want to
acclimatize and build themselves up into it.

Speaker 2 (01:49):
Yeah, very much like a Lions to a British and
Irish Lions too. You play some of the you know,
the franchises or the local sides, and you build a
little hype for the series, and you get a bit
of game time under your as well, and you can
mix and match combinations. The All Blacks will play close
to the Test team, I believe against the Sharks on
Wednesday morning. Then they'll probably revert to similar players to
what we're seeing tomorrow morning for that Bulls game. And

(02:11):
then you've got all your cards on the table for
that first match.

Speaker 1 (02:15):
All right, test rather all right mate, stay well and
we'll catch up maybe next week. See how we go,
Elliott Smith. We always review the tapes, check the performance
and it was good. We'll get them back next week.
But I vote yes. Sam normally votes to know, but
I vote yes. Let's get

Speaker 2 (02:29):
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