Rugby: new coach Dave Rennie to unite Wallabies

A recognition that the Wallabies have become one of the most multicultural sides in rugby was a major selling point for Dave Rennie.

Dave Rennie is the second Kiwi and the first Polynesian to coach the Wallabies

A recognition that the Australian team has become one of the most multicultural sides in world rugby became a major selling point for Dave Rennie as he was named on Wednesday as the second New Zealander — but first Polynesian — to become coach of the Wallabies.

While Rennie’s record of consistent coaching success in New Zealand and Scotland won him the job, Rugby Australia sources admitted the fact he was able to bring the Chiefs side, heavily populated with Polynesian players, to back-to-back Super Rugby titles in 2012-13 counted heavily in his favour.

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With players from Tonga, Fiji, Samoa, Papua New Guinea, indigenous Australians and Anglo-Saxons all in the Test side, the Wallabies represent one of the real success stories of Australian multiculturalism but there is the potential — certainly following the expulsion of Israel Folau this season — for the team to fracture along racial lines.

Former coach Michael Cheika undoubtedly has his critics but he did a wonderful job of putting a united, harmonious team on the field and there is no doubt that RA made a conscious decision to find a replacement who would carry on his work in that regard.

“There is no doubt that was an added factor,” said Rugby Australia chief executive Raelene Castle. “He’s had success working in that Polynesian environment but, more importantly, he has had success in bringing all cultures together in his teams.”

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Former All Blacks and Chiefs mainstay Stephen Donald insisted there was nothing unusual in what Rennie – who played one game for the Cook Islands — did.

“He’s a man manager,” Donald told The Australian on Wednesday. “He’s a normal bugger, to be honest. I don’t think he does anything special. He’s just him and he’s great with people.

“I know what you’re talking about there (with culture) but I think it’s a natural sort of thing for him. I don’t think there would be too many blokes who have been coached by him who would have a bad word to say about him. He just knows how to create a rugby team, to be fair.

“It’s about hard work and accountability but he also knows how to create an enjoyable environment. He’s very good on the guitar so he’s a bit of a walking jukebox. This culture stuff is great but he doesn’t get enough credit for just how sharp a rugby brain he is. ‘Rings’ is certainly an innovator who comes up with stuff that you haven’t heard of or seen before.

“So he’s creative and with the Australian talent he has at his disposal, you will probably see almost a return to a decade ago of the Australian way of back play. He will play a brand of footy that Australia will enjoy. He’s a great coach, a great man and Australia will benefit hugely from having him.”

Former Wallabies coach John Connolly hailed Rennie’s appointment — the second Kiwi to coach the Wallabies after Robbie Deans’ footsteps — as “a fresh start for Australian rugby”.

“Rennie is a very likeable guy and there won’t be any problems with personality or anything like that,” Connolly said. “His biggest problem is the fact that he doesn’t finish up with Glasgow Warriors until June so he is going to arrive here and have to make a lot of critical selection calls very quickly.

“But aside from the fact that he has lost one of his second-rowers, has to reorganise the back-row, sort out a new halves combination, settle on a new centre combination and reconfigure his back three, it’s all going to be easy for him,” Connolly quipped.

Jokes aside, Rennie – and the RA officials who appointed him, Castle and director of rugby Scott Johnson – will need early successes with a potentially exciting but largely inexperienced team. A Bledisloe Cup series triumph next season would go down a treat.

While Johnson, a personal friend, will hold the fort until Rennie’s arrival, much will depend on which assistant coaches RA puts around him. Certainly the names being bandied around yesterday, England assistant Scott Wisemantle and Scottish defence coach Matt Taylor – both Australians – suggests they are thinking creatively. So too with the choice of selectors and while Johnson was placed on the panel to ensure Cheika did not get out of control at the World Cup, it may be time for him to relinquish that role.

RA left itself open to accusations of not following due process in appointing Rennie so early, shutting out such candidates as Scott Robertson and fellow Kiwi Ian Foster, but in their minds they pulled off a coup.

There is no question that the fact that they had pursued Rennie for virtually nine months played a key role in swinging him to the Wallabies, even though New Zealand continued to dangle the All Black job in front of him right up until Tuesday when he signed.

“I’m a proud Kiwi but the big thing is I’ve been talking to Australia for a lot of months,” said Rennie from Glasgow.

“The All Black interest came in late in the piece and by that stage we’d done a lot of homework, we were really excited about the opportunity to go to Australia and that ended up being an easy decision.”