Former Manu Samoa No 10 and freelance rugby scribe Campbell Burnes fully endorses Dave Rennie’s promotion as All Blacks head coach.
This piece is being written less than 24 hours after Dave Rennie was named as the ninth All Blacks head coach of the professional era.
New Zealand Rugby went early with the sensational sacking of Scott Robertson on January 15, and then went early, a day earlier than most pundits were tipping, in announcing the new man on March 4.
For the second time, Jamie Joseph has been knocked back, after being overlooked for Robertson in March 2023, the last time applications were called. I would have been happy with either Joseph or Rennie, both seasoned coaches with strong cases for the big job.
Joseph was the early favourite, but Rennie has a compelling coaching CV that stretches back the thick end of 30 years. He’s 62. Sir Graham Henry, who also had a 30-year apprenticeship, was 57 when he first took the All Blacks. This is not a job for one in their 30s, John Mitchell being the last of that age group to win the nod.
Rennie took the long and correct route to the All Blacks, starting at club level with the Upper Hutt Rams and then NPC with Wellington and Manawatu.
I first encountered him in 2006 at an IRANZ course in Palmerston North. Murray Mexted spoke highly of him. I was mightily impressed with his knowledge and ability to impart that on coaches and players alike. He was very open with the media, never a given in this day and age. Let’s hope that continues.
His champion Chiefs team in 2012-13 often played stirring rugby. They knew who they were playing for, Rennie having set the tone on and off the field. After a two-year stint at the Glasgow Warriors, which expanded his horizons, he might have been in line for the All Blacks’ position, with Steve Hansen stepping down in 2019. But NZR made the costly decision to not advertise until after Rugby World Cup, by which time Rennie had been snapped up by the Wallabies. He was making progress, and the playing and management group by all accounts love him, but that was not backed up by enough positive results, so he was jettisoned, disastrously, by RA, in early 2023. Since later that year, he’s been at the helm of Japanese club Kobelco Kobe Steelers and will finish his contract there in late May or early June.
At the time of writing, he still had to nail down his assistants, which will be crucial, and then sort out just why the All Blacks backline has spluttered and often been out of synch for two years. The advent of Richie Mo’unga will help no end, but there is much work to do and that is more than just selecting the correct ‘cattle,’ to coin a favourite phrase of Rennie.
We wish him well. He has just 18 months to get the All Blacks back on track.