New Zealand broadcaster Martin Devlin joined the Lekker Rugby Pod to argue that Dave Rennie has settled on a clear tactical identity for this tour — physical attrition over expansive rugby. Devlin made the case that Rennie's selection of Blackadder over Duplessis-Kirifi is a deliberate statement: "Bigger, meaner, more malicious. Just coming in hot." He tied this to what he called a CPR-as-violence-delivery-system argument floated by the hosts — that the All Blacks' high contact-per-run numbers are not a running philosophy but a mechanism for repeated physical confrontation. On Ardie Savea's absence from the tour opener, Devlin was direct: he said it "deserves to be discussed," that it has never happened before in All Blacks touring history, and that the only question that matters is whether Dave Rennie genuinely believes it makes "the boat go faster." He also argued that the Springboks' squad depth is the decisive structural advantage in this series — the product of Rassie Erasmus thinking years ahead about what happens when your number-ones get injured — and that Scott Robertson is simply following a blueprint Erasmus already wrote.