There was a moment at the end of Dave Rennie’s address to the media yesterday when the difference between his management group and his predecessor Scott Robertson’s struck home.
The exchange may serve to give comfort to All Blacks’ players and fans alike.
It goes without saying that every Test is important to both groups but there is a sense that Rennie is in rebuilding mode after the shock of Robertson’s axing in January and a sense too that the clock is ticking ahead of next months’ trip to South Africa and next year’s World Cup in Australia.
Rennie was explaining his match-day squad selections for the Test against France in Christchurch on Saturday – his first as All Blacks head coach – and was asked about the alignment of the selectors (him, Sir Graham Henry and Neil Barnes).
“I’m the youngest out of the group which is a rarity for me,” Rennie said. “Ted [Sir Graham] will say that he has more influence and so on. We joke about a lot of that stuff, but we are very aligned around how we want to play and the type of players we want to pick to play that game.
“It’s great having Ted involved. He has massive experience and we’re enjoying his company.”
Rennie is 62. Sir Graham turned 80 last month. Barnes is 67.
Rennie is a former schoolteacher, publican and a rugby coach of vast international experience. Sir Graham is a former headmaster, led the All Blacks to a World Cup victory in 2011 and helped the Black Ferns to one in 2022. He coached Wales before that. Barnes, a dairy farmer, is a widely experienced provincial head coach, Super Rugby assistant, and helped Italy, Canada and Fiji at three World Cup campaigns.
Rennie also has former All Blacks captain and Moana Pasifika head coach Tana Umaga to call on, as well as Mike Blair, a former Scotland Test halfback with whom he has coached for several years.
Rennie has also welcomed back the hugely experienced Gilbert Enoka as his mental performance coach.
He has, in short, a resource that, for whatever reason, Robertson never had access to. Rennie and his men also have a wealth of real-life experience whereas the man known as Razor and his assistants Jason Holland, Leon MacDonald, Scott Hansen and Tamati Ellison were all around his age – late 40s and early 50s – and their CVs contained rugby and little else.
One other, Jason Ryan, is a “lone survivor” as he joked the other day and has continued under Rennie. Ryan also worked in the “real world” selling mining equipment before he rolled the dice to become a professional coach. One wonders if that is significant in terms of his relative longevity.
None of this is a guarantee of success but it appears to be a decent foundation and whatever happens over the next month as the All Blacks take on France and then Italy in Wellington and Ireland in Auckland before they take on the world champions at home it appears safe to assume that Rennie and his management group have seen it before.
We'll know more after Saturday but it also appears evident that Rennie has a plan and that it has resonated with his players. Robertson, who began this time two years ago with a Test against England in Dunedin, obviously did too but a disconnect meant the message stopped getting through or maybe it wasn’t the right message.
Robertson was said to have been shocked when confronted with some of the feedback from his players before he was relieved of his duties in January and there really is no excuse for that as a professional head coach.
Rennie’s calm explanations of his selections yesterday, including perhaps his most contentious of starting Luke Jacobson at openside flanker instead of Ardie Savea (No.8) and Damian McKenzie at fullback instead of Will Jordan (right wing), was also instructive.
The latter was so he could have “the two best fullbacks in the world, both on the field at the same time”.
Of Jacobson, he said: “It sounds like some people got excited about the change… we like Luke. Luke is tough. He’ll have a real physical presence against the French and we think that’s really important.”
His 17-minute address, which went into more detail and provided logic, was delivered seated behind a table. Robertson preferred to deliver his while standing – all the better to cut things short when there was a lull in the questioning.
Initially, at least, there was a worldwide media fascination with Robertson’s surfer lifestyle and, while no fault of his own, he was forever responding to questions about his progression to the top All Blacks’ job.
Again, that’s a little different now.
“You don’t plan this sort of thing,” Rennie said when asked if he had reflected on his journey. “I think I mentioned when I was going to be leaving Japan after three years – I’d been away nine years – my plan was to go back to Manawatū and spend more time watching my grandkids play sport and spend time with my boys and get under the trees and split a bit of firewood and help [the] Manawatū [team] out. This is a little different and we’re going to spend about five months in hotels.
“But… you get involved in the game because you love it. Sometimes things happen and you get an opportunity. I’ve been lucky, I’ve coached in lots of parts of the world and coached with lots of great people and coached lots of good men. It’s pretty cool – you get paid to do something that historically I’ve done for nothing and would do for nothing. Very fortunate.”
It's early days of course but it may be that the All Blacks are similarly fortunate.
All Blacks match-day squad to play France
(Test caps in brackets; * denotes debutant)
1. Ethan de Groot (40), 2. Codie Taylor (106), 3. Fletcher Newell (35), 4. Josh Lord (12), 5. Sam Darry (8), 6. Peter Lakai (8), 7. Luke Jacobson (24), 8. Ardie Savea (106) (Captain), 9. Cam Roigard (17), 10. Ruben Love (5), 11. Caleb Clarke (33), 12. Jordie Barrett (78), 13. Quinn Tupaea (24), 14. Will Jordan (54), 15. Damian McKenzie (74). Reserves: 16. Asafo Aumua (20), 17. Xavier Numia * , 18. Tyrel Lomax (48) , 19. Patrick Tuipulotu (56), 20. Wallace Sititi (19), 21. Cortez Ratima (21), 22. Billy Proctor (11), 23. Fehi Fineanganofo * .
Today's stories include a miraculous rescue in Venezuela, an update on the Empire state building couple, wildfires in France and Taylor Swift's wedding. (Source: 1News)
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