Hardened by the fall: Why Dave Rennie’s setbacks make him the right All Blacks coach

Source: Radio New Zealand

By Tony Johnson, rugby commentator

Analysis – The road travelled over the last 26 years by Dave Rennie, from fledgling coach of the Upper Hutt club to the top job with the All Blacks, has been a long and winding one.

A quick promotion to the Wellington ranks in 2000 brought instant success, an NPC title that had eluded the Lions for 20 years, but since then there have been troughs to go with the peaks.

And it’s the experience gained from those most trying of times, notably his dismal 13 from 34 record with the Wallabies before being fired for Eddie Jones just months out from the Rugby World Cup, that might just prove as valuable as that gleaned from his successes.

Sir Graham Henry has often spoken about how he’d had to learn to become a better people manager after his Lions team blew up in Australia in 2001. Were it not for a run of defeats against the Springboks in 2009 that forced he and his coaching team to have a long hard think about what they were doing, would they have won the World Cup two years later?

Failure at high level was something Scott “Razor” Robertson had no real experience of, and it showed. The defeat against England last November not only cost the All Blacks a much hoped for Grand Slam, it had a profoundly deflating impact on the team, from which the rumours of player discontent emerged.

Dave Rennie knows how to handle success, but will have learned much from his failures.

One of his first tasks will be to address the oft reported, but never truly proven cracks in the group and ensure the team ethos is intact. In this regard, his credentials are compelling.

For sure, his back to back successes with the Chiefs owed plenty to an outstanding group of players and a (cliché alert) coaching “Dream Team”, but it was Rennie who realised from the get-go that they were unlikely to win anything unless they figured out just who they were as a club, and who and what they represented.

From that journey of discovery came a powerful kaupapa, He Piko He Taniwha, On Every Bend (of the Waikato River) a Chief. It established a sense of identity Liam Messam describes as “bone deep”, and the hitherto elusive success came instantly. You’ll battle to find a single player from that era with a bad word to say about Dave Rennie.

As for his playing style, one thing Rennie will not be afraid of, is to bring some abrasion. His Chiefs teams infuriated opposition with their policy of clearing out anyone or anything within coo-ee of ruck. It is a risk-reward strategy that can be devastatingly effective when managed well, but a liability if carried out recklessly.

That’s all in the future. Of immediate importance now will be the establishment of a good coaching team around him. Whilst a complete clear-out of Robertson’s group is unlikely, it is also inconceivable that they will all survive. Rennie will want people with him he can trust, who align with his thinking. It won’t work otherwise.

Whilst public opinion appears to be well in favour of the decision, not everyone is convinced. Some have been quick to point at how his methods did not bring success to the Wallabies, a notable win over the Springboks notwithstanding. In his defence, he was trying to coach a team against an impossibly unstable backdrop, and he could hardly have fared worse than the man who replaced him so abruptly.

Some of those doubts may have been allayed by Rennie’s opening press conference, which was carried out with a clarity and authority that his predecessor had always struggle to convey. It also demonstrated his trademark willingness to challenge boundaries, exemplified in his comments about Brodie Retallick.

Retallick has been in outstanding form in Japan, and could clearly be a difference maker, but that would need the NZR eligibility laws to be tweaked.

Scott Robertson tried it with Richie Mo’unga and got nowhere. The fact that Rennie made his pitch with Chair David Kirk right beside him does make you wonder what they might already have discussed.

Kirk has made it clear that whilst a huge year lies ahead in 2026, it’s next years World Cup that is the number one priority. Was Dave Rennie saying “if that’s the task, then how far are you prepared to go to give me the best chance of achieving it?”

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– Published by EveningReport.nz and AsiaPacificReport.nz, see: MIL OSI in partnership with Radio New Zealand