Rugby-All Blacks aim to use South Africa tour games to give players game time

New Zealand's All Blacks coach Dave Rennie plans to give all players game time in the first three matches of their South African tour to create competition for test team spots.

New Zealand will be using the first three games of their South African tour to ‌give all their players game time and create competition for places in the test team, coach Dave Rennie said on Wednesday.

The All Blacks start their eight-match tour against the Stormers at the Cape Town Stadium and will play two more provincial ‌franchise teams – the Sharks in Durban and the Bulls in Pretoria – before the first test against the Springboks in ‌Johannesburg on August 22. “We've sort of picked the teams to play in these games, but we've already made some little changes based a little bit on injury," Rennie told a press conference on Wednesday.

“It gives us a chance to create competition for places for that first Test side. ⁠The ​fact that everyone will get ⁠to play, it's a real buzz within the group. “If you look at this first game, there are a number of guys who have returned ⁠from injury recently or didn't play a massive amount of footy in that Nations Championship series," the coach added.

“But if you look ​at the side, it's pretty experienced too. You know, you’ve got guys like Beauden Barrett playing, who didn't ⁠play a part last month but has been training out of his skin and ready to go. We think it's a really good blend, it's ⁠a ​strong side.” Rennie is looking to build on New Zealand’s wins over France, Italy and Ireland last month.

“We've had a little bit more time together and that's been good, but there are some new combinations and we're going to ⁠play against a side (Stormers) that is very competitive," he said. “They’ll be excited about the potential of an international scalp ⁠and, so that makes them ⁠dangerous.

“A lot of this is just about us getting better. We've got a test match just around the corner and we know we'll need to be better against the Springboks ‌than we were ‌in the previous three tests.” (Writing by Mark Gleeson in Cape ​Town; Editing by Ed Osmond)