Dave Rennie reveals how he will juggle All Blacks and Kobe jobs and his verdict on Scott Robertson’s assistants
New All Blacks head coach Dave Rennie and an inset of Jason Ryan.
Dave Rennie has addressed two main talking points following his appointment as the new All Blacks head coach.
The former Wallabies and Chiefs boss was unveiled as Scott Robertson’s successor on Wednesday, pipping Jamie Joseph to the position.
He is now tasked with getting the three time world champions back on track ahead of the 2027 Rugby World Cup in Australia but before then, he has a few matters to deal with, most notably who will form part of his coaching ticket and how he will be fulfilling his duties with New Zealand Rugby whilst still being the head coach of the Kobelco Kobe Steelers.
Juggling jobs
Rennie’s contract at the Japanese club expires at the end of the current season and he will honour that commitment before his focus turns solely to the All Blacks ahead of the Nations Championship and Greatest Rivalry Series.
But in the meantime, he will be using every spare hour to best prepare his plans for his return to the international stage.
“We don’t have access to the players at this time, normally anyway, I think there’d be a lot of nervous people out there as well,” Rennie told All Blacks legend Jeff Wilson in an interview for Sky Sport NZ.
“Ideally, I’d be here and be a lot more visible, but I’m committed to Kobe but this is the end of my three-year term and I can double up. I’ve done it a lot of times before and every spare hour will be dedicated towards the All Blacks.”
While he fielded questions about the All Blacks captaincy and the ability to select overseas-based players, Rennie says that his first concern is who makes up his coaching team.
Scott Robertson’s assistants
Scott Hansen, Tamati Ellison and Jason Ryan remain employed by New Zealand Rugby and whilst Rennie did list who he plans to get on board during the interview process, he will have conversations with the incumbents before making the final decision.
“I’d like to get the coaching group sorted quickly,” he said.
“I’ve made some suggestions to the board around people I’d like to bring in, who I think can make a difference.
“They obviously want me to talk to the incumbents as well, so we want to do that quickly because we’re sorted, then we can start ripping into things.”
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Getting that out the way will speed up the planning process and Rennie will then travel to New Zealand during Kobe’s bye weekends in the JRLO competition and get his assistants over to Japan when possible.
“The guys who are based here, we want to start driving connection and I want them to come up to Japan so we can get a lot of planning done, around our game model, all the details,” he added.
“I’ll come back here every four weeks, when we’ve got a bye week and try to build on that, but also get around the franchises and connect.”
