Sir John Kirwan does not like the Bomb Squad. He actually hates it with a passion. But he also knows it works, and he wants the new All Blacks coach to borrow some of that South African audacity.
Dave Rennie takes over this season after Scott Robertson was sacked, and the pressure is immediate. The All Blacks squad gets named after the Super Rugby Pacific final between the Hurricanes and Chiefs. But Kirwan, the legendary All Blacks winger, has a message for Rennie before he picks his first team: be bold. Be really bold. Like Rassie Erasmus bold.
Erasmus has built back-to-back World Cup winners in large part by taking risks that most coaches would avoid. He changes his Test team week to week, something Kirwan says nobody would have dared three years ago. And then there’s the Bomb Squad — that bench of seven forwards that South Africa uses to bludgeon opponents in the second half.
“I hate it, I bloody hate it,” Kirwan said on the Rivals podcast. “But it works, the majority of the time it works. Having that courage is really, really important.”
What Kirwan wants to see from Rennie
Kirwan isn’t expecting Rennie to completely overhaul New Zealand’s game plan in the 15 months before the next World Cup. That’s not realistic. But he does expect the former Wallabies boss to be more adventurous with his selections than Robertson was.
Robertson’s conservatism became a running criticism in his final months. He stuck with a core group, didn’t gamble on young talent, and the results suffered. The All Blacks lost the Rugby Championship last year and looked flat in key moments.
“When Razor got in, we thought he might branch out a bit. He didn’t. He was conservative,” Kirwan said. “So this is going to be a really interesting selection. I think he will be bolder. I think he will have four or five players where you go, ‘wow.’ He will go for bolters.”
The Super Rugby factor
Kirwan expects the Chiefs and Hurricanes to supply the majority of the squad. Those two teams clash in the final, and a handful of standout performers likely forced their way into Rennie’s thinking. But the real intrigue is who comes from outside that pool — the players no one has penciled in yet.
One name getting buzz is the young loose forward Wallace Sititi, who has drawn comparisons to a breakout star. Kirwan didn’t name names on the podcast, but he hinted that Rennie could follow the same path Erasmus does: pick kids, see what they can do, show them trust.
“This week against the Barbarians, if you play your young guys you learn a lot, but it also takes a lot of courage,” Kirwan said.
He knows that public patience might not be there. Fans expect the All Blacks to win now. But Kirwan’s point is that the public needs to back the coach when he makes those uncomfortable calls — even if the results wobble at first.
The All Blacks have a massive rivals tour in South Africa later this year, followed by the rest of the 2025 calendar. Everything builds toward the World Cup. Rennie doesn’t have time to ease into the job.
Kirwan summed it up: “I don’t know what Dave Rennie will do, and I think that’s the suspense.”
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