Rookie All Blacks back-rower Anton Segner has revealed the shock to the system experienced after first joining Dave Rennie’s squad last June.

He has also spoken about the transformative legacy of attack coach Mike Blair’s first meeting with the team following defeat in the Greatest Rivalry series with the Springboks.

The German-born 25-year-old was called up by New Zealand for the southern leg of the Nations Championship. He had enjoyed a stellar Super Rugby Pacific year at the Blues under Vern Cotter, but he found the Test-level environment under Rennie to be something that initially took a bit of getting used to.

Segner eventually went on to be capped twice off the bench, coming on in the July victories over Italy and Ireland, but getting used to All Blacks training wasn’t straightforward. Appearing on the Aotearoa Rugby Pod ahead of the end-of-year tour to Scotland, Wales and England, Segner was asked about the All Blacks’ conditioning to play the high-tempo style of rugby that Rennie wants.

“The contact during the week is less than what we did during the Blues…”

He insisted they have adapted to what is required but admitted he initially found it tough to make that adjustment. “We’re going into the last tour of the year now, so we have trained quite a bit together,” he began.

“We’ve spent quite a bit of time on the training pitch together, training those high-intensity moments and the long ball in plays and stuff, so the body sort of gets adapted to that. But I remember that first campaign that we did for the Nations Championship; it was a bit of a shock to the system for sure, and the way that those Tuesdays and Thursdays looked.

“The sort of contact during the week is less than what we did during the Blues, but the running load is definitely up, so you sort of narrow down on one thing while the other thing goes up and your body just adapts to it. By now I’m pretty used to the way that the week looks within the All Blacks camp.”

Admitting that he has never been fitter, he added: “I wouldn’t solely put that down to the way that we’re training here at the All Blacks at the moment. It’s also just the age that I now find myself at. I mean, I’m 25 now and that’s really where your body is physically starting to really get to a good level.

“I feel strong, I feel fit, I feel fast, I feel good at my current playing weight, and I’m just ready to get back out there, to be honest, because these last two injuries have really been tough on me mentally.

“I get given these opportunities by the coaches and it’s these unfortunate injuries [ankle and HIA] that are keeping me off the field, so I’m looking forward to these next couple games and hoping to get some good game time.

“It’s quite a contrast between how we trained at the Blues this year. Obviously, under Vern it’s pretty head-through-the-wall rugby, pretty direct rugby which we played under him, and then you get called into the All Blacks environment under Dave and it’s almost a completely different style of play.

“Some fundamentals of rugby never change in terms of the carry-clean stuff and the set-piece dominance and stuff, so you still need to be conditioned to do that and be strong enough and explosive enough to do that, but the style of rugby that we, as the All Blacks, want to play does require quite good fitness levels, so you definitely have to work on those.”

Asked what was specifically demanded of him in the back row by the All Blacks coaches, Segner explained: “In the one-on-ones we spoke about work rate, which is underlined by everything that we do on the field, especially the way that Rennie wants to play.

“Everything comes off the back of speed to set and outworking the other team, and we want to play rugby. In order to do that, you need to work hard if you want that ball in play time to be up, so work rate is a big one, especially in the loose forward position, but that’s right across the board.

“And then individually as well, Neil (Barnes) said that it’s one of my strengths that I can obviously play all three positions and cover quite a bit of skill set to do that, but make sure that I keep working at my points of difference, which is my lineout work and my defensive breakdown work as well.

“So, make sure that I keep chipping away at those because those are the points that are making me the player that I am at the moment, and I pride myself on those as well. The coaches have given me a really clear outline in terms of what they’re looking for me and what I want to work on, and as a player that is all you want.”

After a three-match winning start to the Nations Championship in July, the All Blacks embarked on their Greatest Rivalry tour to South Africa and despite winning the opening Test, they suffered a 1-3 series loss.

That setback hurt, but they have since defeated Australia 2-0 in the Bledisloe Cup series and Segner has singled out attack coach Mike Blair’s first post-South Africa meeting with the team as crucial in helping them to move on from missed opportunities against the Springboks and putting the Wallabies to the sword.

“He [Blair] has been huge for us. A lot of the things that we do on attack come off the back of his philosophy and his coaching. And the way that he presents to the group, the way that he coaches us sets us up really well.

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“He is obviously massive on using our skill set and offloads and keeping the ball alive, KBA and all that stuff, and making sure that we use our skill set within the pods as forwards as well.

“At the back end of the South Africa tour, we were hurting ourselves by, yes, we were getting line breaks, but then we were trying to force that last pass too early instead of a phase.

“I remember he got up in front of the group that first meeting after the South Africa tour and showed us some stats and some clips as well that support that fact of us getting line breaks but not being able to finish them due to lack of accuracy.

“I thought it was really pleasing to see that in the last two games against Australia, you could really tell that we have tightened up on those areas, which just shows that when he talks, the boys listen, that’s for sure, and the stuff that he is teaching us is definitely helping.”