Will new coach Dave Rennie pick a foreigner to help the All Blacks regain their aura?

Friday, 6 March 2026

ANALYSIS: Incoming All Blacks coach Dave Rennie has targeted the task of recruiting assistants as a high priority - the question is whether he will rely on New Zealanders or foreigners to fill his quota.

If Rennie invites a non-Kiwi to join his inner circle - he has a contact book filled with names after nearly a decade coaching in Glasgow, Australia and Japan - he wouldn't be the first coach to look beyond New Zealand to extract the best from the All Blacks.

When Graham Henry succeeded John Mitchell as All Blacks coach in 2004, he brought in former Aussie Rules ruckman Mick Byrne as a skills coach.

Byrne, liked and respected by the players, proved a valuable addition; he stayed when Steve Hansen replaced Henry, before joining the Wallabies after the All Blacks defended the World Cup title in 2015.

Rennie has work to do before he locks in his assistants. Some, if not all, incumbents will be sent packing.

Having confirmed to the NZ Rugby board who he believes can help the All Blacks reach their potential, Rennie must now prioritise two things.

The first is to contact the men who worked under predecessor Scott Robertson and advise them of their fate.

Once he has completed that task Rennie can confirm the identities of who he believes can dovetail their skills into his, and make the All Blacks sent out maximum heat on the paddock.

'I would like to get the coaching group sorted quickly,'' Rennie told Sky Sport on Wednesday.

'I have made some suggestions to the board around people I would like to bring in, who I think can make a difference.

'They [NZ Rugby] 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.''

When Robertson was sacked in January, NZ Rugby chair David Kirk said All Blacks assistants Jason Ryan, Scott Hansen and Tamati Ellison would remain employed until a new coach was found.

Bryn Evans, who is also on the Hurricanes books, joined the All Blacks last year to, among other things, provide assistance with the lineout.

Coaches who arrive on the scene with a fresh perspective on how to drive a team to success don't look in the rearview mirror.

There's likely to be bad news for some, or all, of Robertson's coaching staff.

Hansen, who was in charge of the attack and formulating game plans for Robertson's approval, appears unlikely to be invited by Rennie to stay.

The fate of another assistant who worked with the backline, Tamati Ellison, could also be in jeopardy.

Forwards coach Jason Ryan, who was recruited by former All Blacks coach Ian Foster after he ditched John Plumtree ahead of the Rugby Championship in 2022 and was retained by Robertson, could be a popular choice if the players get any say.

Tagged early in his career as a knowledgeable and capable operator by the highly respected Mike Cron, the former scrum guru who morphed into a forwards coach with the All Blacks, Ryan corrected the issues - defending lineout drives had been an issue under Plumtree - that plagued the team in 2022.

Having worked with the All Blacks during the World Cup in France in 2023, Ryan is aware of what's required to extract the best from the forward pack during a long tournament.

Rennie, who coaches All Blacks loose forward Ardie Savea and former test lock Brodie Retallick at the Kobelco Kobe Steelers club in Japan, hasn't had to travel to do his due diligence on Ryan.

If Rennie wants to start with a completely clean slate, however, there will be no survivors.

When Rennie coached the Chiefs in his sixth, and final, season in 2017 he had Neil Barnes and Andrew Strawbridge assisting with the forwards and backs respectively. Barnes has been involved with Taranaki in recent seasons, while Strawbridge was involved with the England national side as a 'contact area coach'' until late last year.

Kieran Keane also worked under Rennie but in recent years hasn't been involved with any high-profile rugby teams.

Rennie's assistants in Japan include Englishman Dan McFarland and Scotsman Mike Blair.

Speculation that former Wallabies great Stephen Larkham, now coaching the Brumbies, was on NZ Rugby's list as a potential assistant appeared to come to nothing after he said he was committed to the Brumbies.

NZ Rugby grilled Rennie and Jamie Joseph before deciding who should coach the All Blacks through to the 2027 World Cup; Kirk said each had sat through an interview that lasted up to four hours, following six weeks of background checks and due diligence.

That included taking references from five 'referees''.

'And they weren't necessarily referees that were recommended by the coaches,'' Kirk said. 'We really wanted to understand … hear from people who had been coached by the candidates and also understood the environment that they created and the way they set the teams up, and environments, up for long-term success.

'And we dug pretty deep into all of that. And, finally, we had a three to four hour interview with candidates. That was over the last couple of days.''

Kirk said the NZ Rugby board's endorsement of Rennie was 'unanimous''.

As Rennie made his pitch to the appointments panel, they may have asked the obvious: Can he bring in a group of assistants who will remain loyal, and be cohesive, through the end of the global tournament in Australia?

One of the painful lessons for Robertson during his two-year reign was that it proved impossible to keep his staff intact.

Leon MacDonald walked out early in the 2024 test programme and Jason Holland elected not to stay on board after 2025.

Rennie called the run-in to the World Cup a 'sprint''.

He, as much as anyone, knows he has to pick assistants who will be prepared to stick with him and his All Blacks until they have galloped past the finish line.