"The major issue we had with the Lions was their tighthead being able to get into our hooker, and that put an enormous amount of pressure on our scrum," Rennie said. "But they came off the bench last week, all three of those guys, and did a reasonable job.
"We had a really good scrum session and may have come up with some solutions around how we can be more competitive in that area. I'm pretty confident that we'll get a far better showing than we did last week, even knowing that the Kings may be excited by the opportunity to scrummage against our boys.
"It'll be a test - and it's going to be a test every week for us - but I think we've made some good shifts."
Another shift has seen natural loose forward Johan Bardoul handed the unenviable task of taking Retallick's spot in the second row, while Leitch and Auckland youngster Taleni Seu will form a revamped loose forward trio alongside Sam Cane.
"Johan's played a little bit of lock for us and he's trained a lot as a lock," Rennie said. "Ultimately, we're pretty keen for Taleni to have a bit more of a roaming role, but that may interchange a bit."
The backs have a much more settled appearance, with the attack hardly struggling for tries in the early weeks. But Brad Weber will earn his first start of the season in place of fellow All Black Tawera Kerr-Barlow, beginning a halfback battle that will progress throughout the campaign.
"Tawera has been really good, we've been really happy with him, and Brad's come off the bench and just sped things up," Rennie said. NZME
Kings v Chiefs, Port Elizabeth, 2am Sunday
Team: Damian McKenzie, Glen Fisiiahi, Seta Tamanivalu, Charlie Ngatai, James Lowe, Aaron Cruden (c), Brad Weber, Michael Leitch, Sam Cane (c), Taleni Seu, Johan Bardoul, Michael Allardice, Siate Tokolahi, Nathan Harris, Mitchell Graham.
Reserves: Rhys Marshall, Pauliasi Manu, Atu Moli, James Tucker, Maama Vaipulu, Tawera Kerr-Barlow, Anton Lienert-Brown, Sam McNicol.
