Sir John Kirwan: Springboks should be ‘shaking in their boots’ after Dave Rennie’s appointment
All Blacks head coach Dave Rennie and Springboks boss Rassie Erasmus.
All Blacks legend Sir John Kirwan has reminded South Africa of Dave Rennie’s outstanding record against Rassie Erasmus as Wallabies boss.
The 62-year-old has taken over from Scott Robertson as New Zealand’s head coach after the Crusaders legend was sacked in mid-January.
NZ Rugby have pinned their hopes on Rennie being the right man ahead of the 2027 Rugby World Cup after being concerned about the team’s “trajectory” under Robertson.
Record as Wallabies boss
It is the former Chiefs boss’ second Test role, having led the Wallabies between 2020 and 2023. He was unceremoniously dumped prior to the World Cup after achieving just a 38 per cent win rate, but he enjoyed plenty of success against the Springboks.
It stood at 75 per cent, and Kirwan has given a warning to South Africa while appearing on the Rivals podcast alongside Victor Matfield.
Erasmus was upstairs in the director of rugby role with Jacques Nienaber the head coach during that period, but he was still a hugely influential figure in the running of the team.
“Two things for you Victor: he’s got a very good win record against South Africa with Australia, so you guys should be shaking in your boots, and then I think the other thing we mentioned, which we’re all aware of, unless you guys throw a game, is we’re going to meet in the quarter-finals [of the World Cup],” Kirwan said.
“A team that has never been knocked out at the quarter-final stage is going to be knocked out.”
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As Kirwan alluded to, the All Blacks and Springboks are scheduled to meet in next year’s World Cup last-eight, but the precursor to that is the Greatest Rivalry series, which takes place later on in 2026.
They are set to face-off four times this year – three in South Africa and the other in the USA – and it would be significant if Rennie could translate that success against the Boks while in charge of New Zealand.
Although the Kobelco Kobe Steelers boss will not truly take over until the Japanese season has finished, he is already putting plans in place.
Ambitious Brodie Retallick plan
That includes trying to tempt his Kobe player, Brodie Retallick, to return to the Test arena.
Retallick is a genuine All Blacks legend, winning the 2015 World Cup and earning over 100 caps, but he recently appeared to rule himself out of a return to the international game.
However, Kirwan sees value in getting him back into the New Zealand set-up if Rennie can convince the second-row to change his mind.
“It’s a project, this is a 15-month project. He’s not even going to be here a month before the July Tests. This is not ideal and I think someone like Brodie Retallick [would be an asset], who was an outstanding lock but also a great leader,” he said.
“Does he want to do it? Does he want to come back? Would he want to do that sort of stuff? I don’t know.
“But what I think Dave will be going is, ‘this is a project for 15 months, I’m going to do whatever I can to get us in the situation to win in South Africa’.”
Rennie also needs to get his assistants in place well before the July Tests. They are still currently contracted, with only head coach Robertson so far dismissed from the previous regime, but Kirwan expects to see new people in the backroom team.
All Blacks assistants and overseas influence
“I think he will understand the difference in roles and understand the difference in pressure that his assistants will be under,” he said.
“From what I’ve heard, Jason Ryan came through the review positively so he’s probably someone you would keep on board for continuity.
“You’re probably going to start with 30 players who have been there before; you’re not going to start with 30 new players, so continuity is going to be very important.
“I think he will understand the next level, he will look around the world for people he might have worked with, and they might be with him in Kobe.”
Kirwan believes that “some foreigners” will be part of the set-up and paraphrased the new head coach’s comments in the press conference to highlight why, adding: “He (Rennie) said for people in the southern hemisphere to stop being so annoying and thinking Super Rugby and our rugby is the best.”
Boks legend Matfield then chimed in with his thoughts, saying: “I think it will be a mistake to go with the current assistant coaches. He maybe keeps one or two but, as a coach, you need guys around you that think about the game like you do.
“People that you trust, people that you’ve worked with, people that you know will strengthen your weaknesses. It will be interesting to see if he keeps the guys but, if I was the head coach, I would like to bring in my own guys.”
Kirwan agreed and picked out one key word from Matfield’s comments which was “trust”, and how that will be vital for the new regime.
“He said one big thing and that’s, ‘I need people who I trust’. This is a hard job. What people don’t realise is it gets really creaky and you’ve got to be in the same trench together,” he added.
