New Zealand, as it has made clear in the last decade, holds a strong ambition for the All Blacks to crack the USA and become the best-known rugby brand in the world’s largest sporting market.

That’s why, or at least partly why, the All Blacks have played five Tests there in the last 12 years and could be in Florida next year to play Argentina and back in the USA in 2028 for a Bledisloe fixture.

The All Blacks are seemingly set on making a dent in the USA – determined to win even just a fraction of a market that is measured in trillions rather than billions. But for now, the more valuable international territory as it pertains to the All Blacks, is the UK. America is the future, but the UK represents the present.

Their vast portfolio of sponsors – the All Blacks have $145m worth of backers who have paid for an association of some description – want to see the team play at the major stadiums and have TV exposure in a country that has nearly 70 million people.

What matters yet more in the UK, is that the All Blacks holds a reputation as the world’s leading rugby power. It is in the UK, where the All Blacks have been coming since 1905, that the legend has been partially built.

The All Blacks loom large in the sporting imagination of the UK. Not everyone in the UK would be able to find New Zealand on a globe, but they would know the All Blacks and the connection with rugby excellence.

And this is why the coming month so critical for the All Blacks. They face Nations Championship Tests against Scotland, Wales and England – games that come with three clear objectives.

The first is for the All Blacks to play with yet greater speed, accuracy, intensity and physicality to show that their ruck-and run style under coach Dave Rennie can work against all-comers.

Rennie has spent his time in office getting to know who is who and exposing large numbers of players to his systems and philosophies. To date, 52 players have appeared for the All Blacks this year.

While most observers would say that the All Blacks under Rennie are considerably more cohesive, consistent and structured in 2026 than they ever were in 2025, that needs to be vindicated by results.

But it is apparent that he wants the emphasis to shift for these final Tests of the year and that the focus will be on driving standards, building greater cohesion and better game management.

The All Blacks are coming to Britain not to build their depth, but to show they are a serious rugby power and are building a fast-tempo, high-skill gameplan that they believe can win them the World Cup.

There were flashes of their potential in the series against South Africa, and the All Blacks went up another level again when they returned and won the Bledisloe Cup.

But the win record under new coach Dave Rennie sits at just 66% – lower than that of his predecessor Scott Robertson who was ousted from the job earlier this year. And while most observers would say that the All Blacks under Rennie are considerably more cohesive, consistent and structured in 2026 than they ever were in 2025, that needs to be vindicated by results.

The new coach needs victories to support the gut feel that the team has a better trajectory than it did under Robertson and it wouldn’t do Rennie any harm to collect some silverware at the end of November to provide yet more tangible evidence that the All Blacks have remembered how to be the All Blacks.

And there is one selection in particular that hints to how the All Blacks plan to take their game to another level in the UK.

The re-introduction of Leicester Fainga’anuku – listed as a loose forward – gives the All Blacks the capacity to firstly experiment with a 6-2 bench split, and secondly, inject a game-breaking talent from the bench in almost any position they choose.

This is, of course, because Fainga’anuku has played Tests as a wing and centre and is now considered ready to be tried as an international openside flanker.

“It’s not just throwing someone in, he’s shown at Super level that he can do the job really well and the challenge for him was often getting your head around all the detail and maybe seven is not quite as challenging because the lineout options and other things are simpler,” Rennie said of the 27-year-old.

The inclusion of Chay Fihaki as an outside back only confirms he has surged past Emoni Narawa, and that the coaches are putting greater emphasis on wings who have renowned aerial skills.

“It gives you massive flexibility, you can name a 5-3 bench but it’s generally a 6-2 and he can definitely make [an] impact in all of those spots.”
Game-changer is a term too often used, but this is exactly what Fainga’anuku is. He’s precisely the sort of player every coach wants because he can be put into the contest and be told to roam wherever he likes and just get his hands on the ball.

He has incredible running power and is an aggressive forager and that combination can win games in the closing stages, and Fainga’unuku feels like he’s going to be a perfect match for the All Blacks’ ruck and run gameplan and make a significant impact.

The other notable selections are the inclusion of Chay Fihaki as an outside back as this not only confirms he has surged past Emoni Narawa, but that the coaches are putting greater emphasis on wings who have renowned aerial skills.

And, the preference of Jamie Hannah over his Canterbury team-mate Sam Darry demonstrates the qualities Rennie is trying to build within his pack.

“Obviously with Scooter [Scott Barrett] coming back and then the quality of the other locks that we’ve got there, we really like Jamie, good athlete, really good lineout forward, runs the lineout well but he’s got a bit of a dark side around carry, clean, tackle,” Rennie said.

The second tour objective is to come home as the inaugural Nations Championship champions. That would see Rennie finish the season with 10 wins from 13 Tests (77%) and the All Blacks collect their first piece of silverware (excluding the retention of the Bledisloe Cup) since they won the truncated Rugby Championship in 2023.

There were times between 2010 and 2019 when the All Blacks held just about every trophy they possibly could and the rest of the world was moaning about rugby being boring because New Zealand were too good.

There were some decisions during that [England] meltdown that will haunt New Zealanders for years as they damaged the reputation of the All Blacks as the world’s great rugby thinkers.

The last six years have felt a far cry from those days and the All Blacks need tangible markers and reminders to solidify their reputation.

But the third goal of this UK visit is arguably the most important: it is to expunge the memory of what happened there last year.

In what would prove to be the three-week stretch that effectively led to Robertson being let go, the All Blacks fell apart for 25 minutes at Murrayfield – a period in which Scotland ran rampant and will forever regret they were not able to strike the killer blow.

The All Blacks escaped with a tight win but their frailties had been exposed. A week later at Twickenham they felt apart again after half-time and England had the ruthlessness to exploit that.

There were some decisions during that meltdown that will haunt New Zealanders for years as they damaged the reputation of the All Blacks as the world’s great rugby thinkers.

They had injured players on the field but no hooker, which meant there was no recognised goal-kicker or anyone who could throw to the lineout. It was chaos, and given the importance of the UK to the commercial aspirations and the need for the All Blacks to be revered in that part of the world, Rennie is determined that last year has to be an anomaly.

“One thing that did excite me about the role was the chance to go to Africa and have a captured audience for seven weeks and learn a lot about the boys,” Rennie said.

“We’re in a good spot in regard to understanding all the layers within the players across the country and you look at NPC has been a brilliant competition and there’s more players surfacing there so it’s not like the group that’s going to the UK is guaranteed to go to a World Cup.

“I think we take 33 maybe to a World Cup. We would have used 50-odd players at this stage so there’ll be good players missing out.”