Dave Rennie is wide awake and relishing All Blacks’ rebuild

What a time this is for Dave Rennie to finally get his chance to coach the All Blacks, merely 18 months out from a Rugby World Cup and with an eight-match tour coming up in South Africa of all places. Four Tests against the imperious Springboks, one held in Baltimore in the United States, is not exactly dipping your toe back into international waters.

Still, Rennie seems to be ­relishing the challenge. In the run-up to the opening game of this new era ­earlier against France, Rennie was still ­fulfilling his coaching duties with Kobe Steelers in Japan, working alongside the new All Blacks attack coach (and former Scotland scrum-half) Mike Blair.

Tana Umaga, coaching Rennie’s defence, and the rest of the new staff were in New Zealand, which as Umaga explained recently on the Aotearoa Rugby Pod meant there were several early-morning Zoom calls between Japan and New Zealand to put plans in place, with Rennie three hours behind. Fortunately, Umaga noted that “Dave doesn’t sleep much, so that was fine with him”.

Kobe won the Japanese title by the way, captained by the great All Blacks lock Brodie Retallick, who Rennie would quite like to have available in the near future.

Outside of some frustrations with the overzealousness of the television match official process after their win over Italy – “it’s hard to celebrate a try in the modern game. You have got to wait until the ball has been kicked-off at halfway to celebrate and high five” Rennie hissed after a 47-17 win – it has been a promising start.

His predecessor, Scott Robertson, was appointed to such fanfare after the last World Cup after years of success with the Crusaders that expectations were sky high.

“Razor” was expected to stay in the All Blacks role for potentially two cycles, not less than two years. But the cracks between players and their coach were undeniable, with New Zealand showing a lack of bottle late in matches. These were uninspiring tactics from an inexperienced coaching group at Test level. So, New Zealand Rugby made their move.

Making the call to sack a coach mid-cycle is bold, but rarely wrong. Well, apart from the time that Rennie himself was sacked by Australia at the end of 2022 to make way for Eddie Jones, with the Wallabies then ­crashing out of the World Cup in the pool stages for the first time under Jones.

That first reunion between Rennie and his former Wallabies team should be fun.

Rennie, Blair and Umaga are ­having to do this team rebuild in double time, but there is already a switch in intensity.

Going with a half-back pairing of Cam Roigard and Ruben Love with Jordie Barrett as the senior head now at inside centre gives you a trio of playmakers who crave action. Plus they have a finisher on the wing in Will Jordan who has just reached 50 tries (in just 56 matches) to break Doug Howlett’s ­long-standing All Blacks try record at the age of 28. Players have been selected on form over reputation, hence the great Beauden Barrett running the water.

You can sense watching New Zealand they are about to become incredibly entertaining. Now, you need a strong pack to make that ­happen, a clear emphasis on quick ruck ball and forwards being fitter and faster.

And they still have plenty to figure out, including how to overcome an aggressive rush defence when you want to move the ball. Tupou Vaa’i was the third different selection at blindside flanker in three Tests.

Ireland, still fizzing about their ­performance in Paris at the start of the Six Nations yet impressive since then, were a major threat to the All Blacks’ proud record of having not lost at Eden Park since 1994.

That threat by half-time had been largely snuffed out. Ireland were sloppy, particularly on attack in the All Blacks’ 22, and New Zealand gratefully accepted any gifts.

To storm Eden Park you have to be clinical. One team received the memo, with New Zealand out of sight with a 28-7 lead at the break, with several tries ­coming from close range. Jordan scored, because of course he did, scooping up a loose Stuart McCloskey pass.

Even though Ireland briefly found more control in the second half – keeping things tight, forcing the All Blacks into a kicking game – New Zealand had too many runs on the board and were too sharp.

This was a good 40-21 win, the most important yet of Rennie’s brief time in charge.

The revival appears to be underway. Making the imminent tour of South Africa box-office viewing.

Scotland beginning to flower after poor ending to Six Nations

With hindsight, we should have seen this scare coming. The combination of Scotland’s return journey from an entertaining but bruising trip to Pretoria to take on the Springboks, and Fiji coming off a miserable afternoon in Liverpool against England that led to questions back home about the prime minister’s involvement in the selection of their current head coach, were perfect ingredients for an upset.

There is enormous respect in Fiji for Scotland’s willingness to visit the island to play a Test match, as they did in 2025, when so many of the other “tier one” nations have avoided that assignment. England last played in Fiji in 1991, which is unacceptable. The plan is that the funds generated by Fiji hosting “home” matches in Cardiff, Liverpool and Edinburgh this month will result in the national stadium in Suva being redeveloped to a capacity of 25,000 to meet the Nations Championship’s commercial requirements. Should that not happen, it would be a travesty.

Fiji triumphed 29-14 last year against Scotland in Suva, and having raced into a 17-7 half-time lead at Murrayfield, they would have been dreaming of another famous day, buoyed by a stunning solo effort from their winger Selestino Ravutaumada. Ultimately it was not their day, but also considerably better than the massacre against England last week.

Scotland in fairness had made 14 changes to the side who faced South Africa, with No 8 Gregor Brown the sole survivor. Gregor Townsend secretly will have enjoyed seeing those new players pushing for selection having to dig deep to find a way to win, as Scotland eventually did in the second half with the arrival of the cavalry off the bench.

Eventually, after multiple flirts with the try line and being held up, they took their chances. In their double try scorer Jamie Dobie – the Glasgow back who has started Tests at both scrum-half and wing – they have a lethal threat and also a coach’s dream, given his ability to cover two positions so effectively.

Has it been a successful Scottish summer? That depends how critical you are of Scotland falling short in South Africa. They impressed with their win in Argentina, particularly full-back Kyle Rowe, and earned plenty of credit from their hosts in defeat after pushing a rotated Springboks side to the limit, before finding answers against Fiji after a start that probably earned a bit of a half-time rollicking. After the disappointment of how Scotland’s Six Nations finished somewhat limply against Ireland, the past few weeks have resembled progress.

Photographs by Brett Phibbs/Photosport via AP; Liam Chester/Nations Championship via Getty Images