Stephen Donald’s bold ‘not many holes’ claim under Dave Rennie as All Blacks contender list ‘is long’
All Blacks head coach Dave Rennie and former fly-half Stephen Donald.
Former All Black Stephen Donald has claimed that Super Rugby Pacific is showing the depth Dave Rennie will have to work with during the 2026 Test season.
As the mid-year internationals edge nearer, with the Nations Championship kicking off in two months’ time, competition for places is heating up.
Plenty of players are putting their hands up, making Rennie’s job difficult as he prepares to name his squad for the games against France, Italy and Ireland next month.
The 62-year-old has taken over the role as All Blacks boss after Scott Robertson was sacked following two underwhelming campaigns in charge, but Donald is positive about their chances of improving under the new head coach.
Donald confident about the All Blacks
“It’s interesting because we’re starting to get to the serious part of Super Rugby. There are a lot of big derbies happening and the All Blacks contender list is long,” he said on The Aftermatch with Kirst and Beav.
“All in all, I don’t think we’ve been in this strong a position for a long, long time. We’ve got our All Blacks coach settled, we know exactly who’s going to be helping him and I think we generally know what sort of attitude and mindset the All Blacks are going to play with, and I think it’s going to be a higher pace and higher speed level.
“When you start to look across Super… there are not many holes, there really isn’t.”
Donald firstly focused on the back five of the scrum, where he believes Rennie will struggle cutting it down, given the number of players that are performing well in Super Rugby.
“You look at the locks which in the past has been, ‘what happens when Brodie [Retallick] and Sam [Whitelock] go?’ You’ve got locks absolutely falling off the trees at the moment, probably five or six you would be more than happy with if they started,” he said.
“There are a lot of young loose forwards emerging, the Hurricanes have about four or five who will be in contention. You see Ardie Savea is coming back.
“You’ve still got Luke Jacobson, Wallace Sititi, Samipeni Finau, the Crusaders boys and [Ethan] Blackadder, so you’ve got plenty there.”
Depth in All Blacks 10 position
The 42-year-old then moved on to his former position, fly-half, where there could be four viable options when Richie Mo’unga becomes eligible in the latter part of 2026.
“At 10, there’s always a debate at the moment, but the fact is we’re not in a bad position. We’re picking from quality and obviously the emergence of Ruben Love has added a fourth genuine name to the big three that we have in Richie, Beaudy [Beauden Barrett] and Damian [McKenzie],” Donald added.
“The outsides, again, Jordie Barrett will be locked somewhere, presumably 12. We’ve got so much depth.
“I would like to think when you look at how the Hurricanes are playing, when you look at how the Chiefs are playing and knowing that Dave Rennie is coming in as the coach, they will think they will mould something there which means we’re going to play with a bit of speed.”
