Dave Rennie’s long road to the top of Australian rugby
NZ writer Liam Napier has covered Dave Rennie’s coaching career for a decade — from provincial rugby to back-to-back Super Rugby titles. He explains where the work will go into the Wallabies.
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Dave Rennie has been here before.
The man anointed this week to transform the Wallabies faces a task that will test all of his coaching nous.
The Wallabies are at a low ebb, ranked sixth globally after their World Cup quarterfinal exit ended the turbulent Michael Cheika era in crushing fashion.
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While patience is now required, rest easy that Rennie is suited to lead his four-year rebuild.
Because he’s been here before.
Rennie comes from humble roots.
The former schoolteacher and publican — he once ran a pub called the Lonely Goat Herd in Upper Hutt while coaching the local premier side — is a man of the people who has travelled the long road to earn his first international posting.
An intelligent, bulky centre in his Wellington playing days, Rennie’s big coaching break arrived thanks to former All Blacks captain Graham Mourie.
Mourie, captain of the trailblazing 1978 Grand Slam-winning All Blacks, went against traditional rugby politics to identify Rennie and Chris Boyd, the Hurricanes’ only title-winning coach who is now leading Northampton in the UK, and nurture them through the ranks.
Both have repaid the faith.
Rennie remains the most recent coach to guide Wellington to the New Zealand provincial title, some 19 years ago, and yet he was still overlooked for the Hurricanes job in 2003.
Asked to prove himself time and again, Rennie accepted the challenge wherever he went.
He took the New Zealand under-20s to three successive world titles from 2008 to 2010, all the while instilling the belief and confidence in Manawatu, a small, under-resourced provincial team in the central North Island, to alongside with New Zealand rugby’s elite.
But he continued to fly under the radar.
His breakthrough came when he joined the Chiefs for the 2012 season — Wallabies fans, take note — and yielded immediate success.
His Chiefs tenure was characterised by non-negotiable principles.
In a recruiting strategy similar to baseball’s famed Moneyball approach, Rennie ruthlessly cleaned out the Chiefs squad and brought in 21 new players for his inaugural Super Rugby season.
Work ethic trumped reputation. Rennie wanted character over personality, attitude over rock stars. He wanted good buggers to embrace a common cause.
Everyone needed to earn the right to wear the jersey.
Rennie, alongside All Blacks guru Wayne Smith and respected forwards mentor Tom Coventry, rebuilt the Hamilton-based franchise from the ground up.
Everything was stripped back to one essential question: Who are we and what are we about?
The Chiefs found the answer in their indigenous Maori roots, giving them purpose and identity.
Players, management and families pitched in to build their new training base. Together they knocked down walls, sanded and painted. It gave players skin in the game — with Rennie’s ways bonding them.
Other activities included hitchhiking across the Chiefs region, stopping in every little town to engage with their people and connect with those they represent.
The statistics confirm Rennie transformed a franchise that prior to his arrival had made one final and two playoffs in their first 16 seasons, holding a 46 per cent winning record.
By the end of his six seasons in charge, Rennie had delivered the franchise their first two Super Rugby titles — back to back in 2012-13. He boasted a 68 per cent record and the Chiefs never once missed the playoffs.
Many believe New Zealand Rugby were foolish to let such success, such intellectual property, leave for Glasgow, where Rennie has guided the Scottish side to an unbeaten regular Pro14 campaign and the Champions Cup quarterfinals last season.
Rennie has a way with people. He believes coaching is not dissimilar to teaching.
In Manawatu, he helped groom Aaron Cruden from an 18-year-old prospect to prodigious talent. Cruden, in turn, rejected overtures from the Hurricanes, his home franchise, and followed Rennie to the Chiefs, where he captured twin titles.
Rennie cultivates relationships. He makes the effort to get to know his players intimately — and therefore understands which individual buttons to push on any given day.
In a game increasingly populated by gifted Polynesian athletes, Rennie’s Cook Island heritage allows him to appreciate the inherent cultural differences every modern-rugby environment tries to embrace — albeit not always successfully.
He does not tolerate division in his playing group.
Rennie’s favoured high-skill, high-speed, style will suit the Wallabies’ natural approach.
He should bring a sense of calm after five years of the combustible Michael Cheika.
Originally published as Dave Rennie’s long road to the top of Australian rugby