Something is brewing in New Zealand and it is going to boil over when the All Blacks play the Springboks in three Tests in South Africa and the final one in Baltimore, New Zealand. What’s brewing is the quality of the All Blacks coaching group.
It is not so much a case of the Springboks be warned, but more one of anticipation that Rugby’s Greatest Rivalry, between the Springboks and the All Blacks, will match the hype of New Zealand’s first full tour to South Africa since 1996.
The Springboks are ranked No 1 in the world and the All Blacks No 2, but the last time the two teams met the Springboks won 43-10 in Wellington.
The Boks scored 33 unanswered points to humiliate the All Blacks in their biggest defeat in New Zealand and their biggest ever in history.
Scott Robertson oversaw the All Blacks and that loss effectively lost him his job, just 18 months and two seasons into the gig.
Robertson, whose All Blacks would also get thumped by England 33-19, having led 12-0, had won seven successive Super Rugby titles with the Crusaders, but he never transferred that Midas touch to the Test arena.
Dave Rennie was appointed to succeed him.
Rennie’s rugby CV is well documented, having won back-to-back Super Rugby titles with the Chiefs, coached Glasgow in Scotland, the Wallabies for two seasons and, most recently, Japan.
His assistant coaches, confirmed this week, are familiar globally with attack coach Mike Blair among the most celebrated Scottish internationals, a former Scottish captain and part of Rennie’s coaching team at Glasgow and in Japan.
Tana Umaga, the iconic All Blacks captain who played 74 Tests, needs no introduction. Umaga has been a familiar face in Super Rugby as a coach, firstly with the Blues and currently with Moana Pacific. He is Rennie’s defence coach.
Then there’s former Crusaders forwards coach Jason Ryan, who had all the success with Robertson in Super Rugby, and was appointed to the All Blacks in Ian Foster’s final season in charge, went to the 2023 World Cup with the All Blacks, was retained by Robertson and has now been kept by Rennie.
Ryan is clearly well respected and highly rated.
Some would suggest the All Blacks, in 2026, will be an unknown, but if one has followed the coaching careers of Rennie and his crew, there is nothing unknown. Individually, they all have presence and know-how to win.
The big piece of the Rennie puzzle is Neil Barnes, and it’s his appointment as a forward specialist, to work in tandem with Ryan, that took a very hot coaching pot and made it even hotter.
Barnes, in New Zealand, needs no introduction, given what he has achieved in his 67 years.
Globally he is not the first name you’d single out when discussing the merits of New Zealand rugby. This will change in the next 18 months because all the talk is that he is the glue that was missing in the youthful Robertson’s coaching squad make-up.
Rennie and Barnes have a long association, with Barnes having been an influential part of Rennie’s title-winning Chiefs.
Barnes has had coaching roles with Canada, Italy and Fiji, but it is in New Zealand where he has made a footprint that is permanent. He is a Taranaki farmer and a Taranaki coach and he is revered in the province.
Former Chiefs and All Blacks World Cup winner Stephen Donald believes Rennie has hit the jackpot with Barnes’s appointment. Donald described him as the kind of rugby man and Kiwi that will anchor the All Blacks, bring honesty to the players and the coaches and command respect because of his knowledge, his approach and his track record.
Rennie, in his interviews, said he knew which players he wanted to pick to make the All Blacks No 1 in the world again and make them title contenders at the 2027 World Cup in Australia.
He said he also knew which coaches he wanted to have next to him to realise this goal.
Rennie, understated in his persona, was emphatic in the delivery of his message.
Both he and Barnes have spoken of the excitement of facing the Springboks in a Test series in South Africa and how it will be the measurement for their World Cup campaign a year later.
Some would suggest the All Blacks, in 2026, will be an unknown, but if one has followed the coaching careers of Rennie and his crew, there is nothing unknown. Individually, they all have presence and know-how to win. Collectively, they are the strongest group assembled since Graham Henry asked Steve Hansen to join him and Wayne Smith in what turned into the All Blacks’ most dominant and golden period in the professional era.
Rugby’s Great Rivalry has always thrilled like no other contest, but this series, to be played in August and September, has just gone up another notch in expectation and intensity.
Round 14 of the URC sees all four South African teams at home, and expected to win, like they did last weekend, but for me the biggest rugby news of the week was not any URC team selections, but the selection of the new All Blacks coaching team.
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