‘One of the best human beings I’ve known’ – The magic behind Dave Rennie’s remarkable rise to the All Blacks
‘One of the best human beings I’ve known’ - The magic behind Dave Rennie's remarkable rise to the All Blacks
Nine years before becoming head coach of New Zealand, a teacher with a guitar and a penchant for landscape gardening pitched up in Scottish rugby with a curious request.
Dave Rennie had been put in charge of Glasgow Warriors, and his first act was to call the squad together and ask them to watch footage of the Fiji rugby team in a pre-match huddle.
Finn Russell, Huw Jones and others looked on as the Islanders began singing their pre-match hymn, Noqu Masu. Cue bemused faces all round.
“I want you all to learn this,” the new boss told a group that included Ryan Wilson, Rennie’s improbable choice as co-captain. “And before you ask, let me tell you why.
“If you’re willing to stand up in front of everyone and belt this out as loud as you can, you won’t be embarrassed to make mistakes on a rugby field.”
What followed were three years in which Glasgow reached a PRO14 Final and the last-eight in the Champions Cup – and Rennie said he never laughed as much.
From team quizzes and fitness sessions with giant skipping ropes, to post-match beers and songs. Never far away was his guitar. One day country and western, the next, Bob Marley or Wilson’s personal favourite, Rod Stewart.
“Rens is one of the best coaches I ever had,” says Wilson, the 50-cap former Scotland star. “But, most importantly, he is a good man, one of the best human beings I’ve known.
“He loves a jar, as he calls it. That’s probably why I connected with him so well. Don’t get me wrong, if you don’t know your s**t, he’ll tell you. He isn’t afraid to poke a man in the chest when it is needed, but he knows when to put an arm round you.”
A surprising appointment
On Saturday at a sold-out Ellis Park, Rennie faces the toughest Test yet of his coaching credentials: world champions South Africa, unbeaten in a year, at altitude, in the spiritual home of Springbok rugby.
It would be an anxious moment for any coach, let alone one whose international playing experience amounted to one non-cap appearance for the Cook Islands.
But Rennie does not conform to stereotype. Before coaching professional rugby, he not only taught PE in a school, he ran a pub which he named The Lonely Goatherd after the song from his favourite musical, The Sound of Music.
He is a man who trusts his instincts, as shown by appointing Wilson co-skipper of Warriors despite the English-born back row’s chequered disciplinary record.
“There were a few eyebrows raised, let’s say,” laughs Wilson, who was found guilty of punching a fellow player in a fast food shop in 2013 whilst dressed as Batman. “I think everyone was like, hold on a minute.
“When Rens told me, even I was like, ‘are you sure?’ I’d had my ups and downs, been through most experiences. But he knew what he was looking for. He wanted someone with a bit of experience in every sort of realm.
“I think he saw in me a guy that looked after the players off the field. Something I definitely learned under him is that five per cent of leadership is about the rugby. The other 95% is about being a good man and looking after the boys away from the field.”
When his time at Glasgow was abruptly ended by the coronavirus pandemic shutting down the world, Rennie spoke of his love both for the Scottish people and, in the land of square sausage and the deep-fried Mars bar, the food he was leaving behind.
Such an impact did he have on those around him that he was not allowed to fly south without first being shown what he meant to his players.
“The Covid legislation was coming in and we were all being told we would not be able to do this and that,” Wilson recalls. “But I said to Cally [co-captain Callum Gibbons], ‘Listen, we can’t let him go without giving him a farewell’.
“So we chucked a few boxes of beer in the back of a car and headed up to Rens’ house in Stirling. He lived under the Wallace Monument, a beautiful setting, and I remember the sun was out.
“There weren’t many coaches, whilst I was playing, whose house I would have been comfortable just rocking up at unannounced, but we did exactly that.”
In addition to the beers, the pair ordered 100 oysters, as they knew they were Rennie’s favourite.
“Unfortunately the ones we ordered weren’t ready in time,” Wilson continues. “So we had a taxi deliver 100 more, all the way from Glasgow.
“We sat outside, socially distanced, of course, slurping back the oysters, drinking beer on his balcony underneath the Wallace Monument.”
“Nine times out of 10 have the guitar out”
Since taking charge of the All Blacks, Rennie has won all six of his matches: three Nations Championship scalps followed by victories over three of South Africa’s four URC franchises.
They have earned respect for the way they have improved since an underwhelming start against the Stormers, ruthlessly putting the Sharks and Bulls to the sword.
Nobody in the tourists’ camp doubts that what is to come will be a completely different ball game, but Rennie has them relaxed as they approach the first of their dates with destiny.
“That doesn’t surprise me,” says Wilson. “What struck me most about Rens is the way he is able to separate the rugby from the off-field stuff.
“No matter what, whether it was a bollocking or whatever was required after the game, it was done in the changing room and then it was forgotten about.
“As soon as you got upstairs it was beer in hand. He’d nine times out of 10 have the guitar out, and be the one singing away and connecting the boys that way.
“I’ve had a few coaches where a bad result or performance would linger, where they’d be pissed off in the changing room and then you could see it for the next couple of days.
“With Rens, you could get on with him after a game like a mate down the pub and he wouldn’t even mention rugby, wouldn’t talk about it. He had an amazing ability to park it and then Monday be right back to business.”