The search for a new New Zealand rugby head coach is over. Dave Rennie has been hired to replace Scott Robertson. His appointment has been applauded and some have warned other countries of his threat.
New Zealand Rugby (NZR) has today announced the appointment of Dave Rennie as All Blacks Head Coach through to the 2027 Rugby World Cup. Rennie, who is of Cook Islands descent through his mother (Titikaveka, Rarotonga), becomes the first All Blacks Head Coach with Pasifika heritage.
NZR Chair, David Kirk, said Rennie has a proven track record as a successful head coach. "On behalf of the Board, I’d like to congratulate Dave on his appointment as All Blacks Head Coach. He is a world-class coach who has consistently shown he can build strong performance environments and win."
"Dave understands what it means to coach the All Blacks and play a style of rugby that reflects who we are as New Zealanders. He has a deep understanding of rugby in New Zealand and the role the All Blacks play in shaping our national identity and bringing communities together."
Rennie said it was a privilege to be appointed Head Coach of the All Blacks. "Coaching the All Blacks is an incredible honour. I’m extremely proud to have been entrusted with this role and understand the expectations that come with it."
"I’m really clear on the way I want the All Blacks to play and I look forward to working with the players, management team, and the rugby community. We have a lot of talent here and we will be working extremely hard to make the country proud."
Kirk said he believed the appointment process had been the most thorough the organisation has undertaken for an All Blacks Head Coach.
"The All Blacks are set for a challenging and exciting two seasons ahead and it’s critical we followed a thorough process to find the right head coach. Dave has a clear direction for the team that gives us confidence the team will be well positioned to perform as we head into the 2027 Rugby World Cup."
As All Blacks Head Coach, Rennie will honour his commitments with the Kobelco Kobe Steelers in Japan until the conclusion of the Japan Rugby League One competition; before returning to New Zealand to prepare the All Blacks for the July home series against France, Italy and Ireland.
NZR will now work with Rennie to confirm the wider All Blacks coaching and management team. Updates will be provided in the coming weeks.
Rennie is an experienced coach who is currently in charge of Japan Rugby League One outfit Kobelco Kobe Steelers and NZR revealed that he would commence his duties with the All Blacks ahead of their Nations Championship Tests against France, Italy and Ireland in July once he completes his club commitments in June.
The 62-year-old has been with Kobelco Kobe Steelers for the past three years, after he was fired as the Wallabies’ head coach shortly before the 2023 Rugby World Cup in France.
Rennie, who also had successful coaching stints with the Chiefs and Glasgow Warriors, is excited by the challenge of coaching the All Blacks and revealed that he will select players purely on form.
"Whether I was coming back to this role or not, I watch every game of Super Rugby. So, I’m not concerned about having an understanding of where players are at, but I’ll watch it closely," he told reporters in Auckland.
"One advantage is players are going to have to earn the right to wear the jersey. I’ve got no loyalties. I don’t come from a team where I’ve had a lot of these guys previously, and so I think that’s really exciting. We’ll select based on form."
Although overseas-based players are currently ruled out of All Blacks selection, Rennie revealed that he is looking at luring some players back to New Zealand to represent the country’s national team.
"I’ll comment on Brodie Retallick. I get to see him train and play every week. He’s stronger than he’s ever been," said Rennie.
"He’s fitter than he’s ever been. I’m not sure if I’m allowed to, but there’s no doubt you want to win a World Cup, ideally, you’ve got your best players available."
"Obviously, Richie’s (Mo’unga) coming back, which would be good. He’s been in great form in Japan. And yeah, look, certainly you have someone like a Brodie Retallick coming into the environment."
"I reckon it’ll really grow the whole group and if I had the chance to get him back, I’d certainly jump in it."
Rennie said he is keen to have conversations with All Blacks who played under his predecessor, Scott Robertson, particularly Scott Barrett, who was New Zealand’s captain in 2024 and 2025.
"I think you’ve got to work through those things and I’m keen to have a chat with players. I know Scott Barrett is a fantastic player and current captain and so I’d be keen to have a chat to him about going forward."
Rennie was involved in a two-horse race with Jamie Joseph for the All Blacks’ head coach position and he revealed that his rival got in touch with him to congratulate him on his appointment.
"I really appreciate his message. That just shows the class of the man," he said.
Robertson’s assistant coaches, Scott Hansen, Jason Ryan and Tamati Ellison, are still in NZR’s employment and although the governing body and the new head coach are going to work on finalising his coaching and management staff; Rennie is eager to bring some people in.
"I’ve got a history of surrounding myself with quality people who can make a difference and I’m keen to do that," he said.
Despite facing a daunting task as All Blacks boss with the Nations Championship and Greatest Rivalry Series against the Springboks set to take place this year and the Rugby World Cup lying in wait next year, Rennie is confident of being successful in his new position.
"It will take a lot of work, it will take a lot of alignment… it’s a sprint from here by the time we start we’ll have about 15 months until the World Cup," he added.
Sonny Bill Williams expects the All Blacks to thrive under new head coach Dave Rennie, as the Rugby World Cup winner hinted that he was involved in NZ Rugby’s process.
The new boss will lead New Zealand into the 2027 global tournament in Australia after taking over from the sacked Scott Robertson.
Williams worked with Rennie at the Chiefs, playing a key role in the Super Rugby successes in 2012 and 2013 and stated NZR “would have done their due diligence” by asking "former players like myself" about the 62-year-old.
According to the Daily Telegraph in Australia, these interviews were "strictly confidential" and the former players were, "not allowed to confirm their participation in the process."
Despite Rennie’s struggles with the Wallabies, which ended with a 38% win rate, that did not count against him. Rugby Australia pulled the trigger early on his tenure, getting Eddie Jones in prior to the 2023 World Cup but many believe that the governing body made a grave error in letting Rennie go.
That included Williams, who is confident that his former boss will do great things with the All Blacks going forward.
"I honestly think that the Wallabies let him go too early, but I’m quite happy because it’s good for us and it’s going to come back to bite them, hopefully next year in the World Cup in Australia," he said in a video on his Instagram page.
"I know that the All Blacks management, NZR, would have done their due diligence, asking many players, former players like myself, what Dave was about."
"I’ll be really interested to see who is in Dave’s coaching team, because I think that’s almost just as important as him being the head coach. But the one thing I do love about this guy is that he would tell you straight up what the game plan is, how they’re playing."
“He’ll also know what type of athlete, player, that he needs and he wants, and he’s demanding in that aspect. But he’ll also push the culture. As I always say, you’ve got to connect to correct, and I think that’s one of Dave’s big strengths.”
Rennie has experience of turning things around quickly and that’s exactly what he did at the Chiefs, taking them from the bottom of the New Zealand Conference to a Super Rugby title in the space of 12 months.
"I think over 50% of players that went into that squad were new. I remember meeting Dave for the first time. Obviously, we had spoken a fair bit before I had signed, but I felt like he knew who I was," the cross-code legend said.
"I remember going into the first meeting, we spoke extensively. He didn’t hold back on the situation that we’re in. The Chiefs had come last the year before, so he spelt that out plainly."
"But then, he set the tone for the expectations that he had in order for you to wear that Chiefs jersey. That’s where I believe a lot of the Chiefs mana within our squad came from."
"We based our culture that year on Jeff Da Māori. So, you know, we all bought into something. We learned the new haka. From a cultural point of view, we were thriving. Then we went on, at the end of that year, led by Liam Messam, to get the first one in Chiefs history."
Justin Marshall has altered his view on overseas-based All Blacks amid talk that Dave Rennie is trying to get Brodie Retallick back in the national team set-up.
The experienced second-row is currently plying his trade at Kobelco Kobe Steelers in Japan under the recently-appointed New Zealand head coach. Rennie has watched Retallick’s performances close up and revealed his desire to potentially get the lock back involved with the All Blacks.
A debate over New Zealand Rugby’s overseas laws has therefore been reignited and Marshall has chimed in with his thoughts.
Under Scott Robertson, the former scrum-half was initially in favour of finding some sort of compromise in order to get foreign-based stars involved but he has changed his mind to a large extent.
If Rennie does manage to get Retallick involved despite being contracted to Kobe, the 52-year-old Marshall wonders where it would stop, with plenty of quality former All Blacks playing abroad.
"That’s the can of worms you open up. I don’t want to contradict myself because I did say last year when we were struggling, would we feasibly look at bringing an Aaron Smith back?" he said on The Breakdown.
"You know what he’s going to add to the team, you know that he’s going to be competitive, he’s still playing great rugby, he’s still young enough, bright enough and fresh enough, and we had injuries in that jersey, so why don’t we open that door up?"
"However, I now feel that with a reset that we are having with a new coach coming in… that it’s a step backwards. If we’re going to create a clean slate, which Dave Rennie looks like he wants to do, then what we want to do is work with what we’ve got."
"Going back to a Brodie Retallick is not a step in the right direction because we’re not getting where we need to get to by bringing a guy back in just for his experience or just because he’s been there and done that."
Marshall ultimately believes that the inclusion of Retallick will take a spot from one of the next generation, who could be vital for the All Blacks later down the line.
"He has moved on from New Zealand rugby and he moved on for a reason – he’s been there, done that, played a 100 Tests and won a Rugby World Cup," he said.
"We want players to want to know how to win a Rugby World Cup, but learn that themselves without having somebody take their jersey. I don’t think we should be opening that door and I think we’ve got enough stock here to be able to work with what we’ve got in New Zealand without having to go abroad. There are so many we could go and grab."
The scale of change within New Zealand Rugby in the last two months – personnel, mindset, philosophy, strategic direction and fiducial discipline – is unprecedented and the organisation that Robertson worked in is unrecognisable to the one Rennie will find when he finishes with Kobe and starts his new role in late May.
Robertson, when he came into the job in 2024, was supported by chief executive, Mark Robinson, who was a former Crusaders team-mate.
His appointment as All Blacks coach was made by a New Zealand Rugby board that had no high-performance expertise on it and had been deemed by a major independent review to not be fit for purpose.
NZR’s head of high performance in this period was Mike Anthony, a former Crusaders conditioning coach who was a close, long-term friend of Robertson.
Chris Lendrum was head of professional rugby and instrumental in the decision to appoint Robertson six months before the 2023 World Cup and operate with a sitting All Blacks coach and an All Blacks coach elect.
It was seemingly all so cosy – no sense of a hard edge or robust discussions between professionals.
Robertson also appeared to have a licence to spend. His total coaching, management and support staff grew to 24 people, which was more than the 21 of his predecessor, Ian Foster and in late 2024, he was able to take an additional seven players to Japan – to provide training opposition – at a cost of around $500,000 in wages, flights and accommodation, all in a year in which NZR posted a $19m loss.
It’s not that Robertson operated without any boundaries or oversight but there has been such a marked overhaul since his departure, that its apparent NZR felt significant changes to the entire high-performance set-up were imperative to enable the All Blacks to succeed.
Since mid-January, NZR has undergone a massive high-performance upheaval. Anthony resigned to take up a role with Brighton in the English Premiership (football), Robertson was let go, in late February, Lendrum resigned. By early March, the All Blacks head of performance, Nic Gill – who had been in the role for 18 years – announced he was joining NFL side, the Baltimore Ravens.
Prior to that Robinson resigned last June, and the entire NZR board – minus one director – was ousted in late 2024.
The upshot is that in the wake of these departures, NZR has radically restructured and has created a new position of high-performance director, a role that will be more akin to the one David Humphreys holds with Ireland and David Nucifora with Scotland.
The high-performance director will hold responsibility for the performance of national teams, but quite specifically, the role will have a heavy focus on the All Blacks.
The sub-text here is that Anthony’s vacated position has been revamped partly because NZR has been aware for some time that is out of step with the rest of the world in not having a performance director attached to the national team, but also as a direct response to some of the collective failings highlighted in Robertson’s tenure.
It would seem that in Robertson’s two years, there was not enough scrutiny of his methods, set-up and strategies until December 2025 when a deep-dive, independent review was conducted.
The findings of the review have never been revealed but they were enough for Robertson to be sacked. The bits and bobs that have leaked out suggest there were issues, which started early in Robertson’s tenure, with the team’s culture and coaching set-up as it pertained to division of labour and the players’ understanding of it.
Two assistant coaches left the All Blacks in those two years without the reasons for their departures being adequately explained or independently investigated, while there were constant, valid, questions about the way the team consistently fell apart after half-time in 2025.
With, on face value, inadequate, independent oversight, problems deepened and player frustration grew to the point there was overwhelming damaging feedback across the squad by December 2025.
Dave Rennie, having been appointed coach of the All Blacks, presumably realises he’s coming into a set-up that is vastly different to the one in which his predecessor Scott Robertson operated.
The scale of change within New Zealand Rugby in the last two months – personnel, mindset, philosophy, strategic direction and fiducial discipline – is unprecedented, and the organisation that Robertson worked in is unrecognisable to the one Rennie will find when he finishes with Kobe and starts his new role in late May.
Robertson, when he came into the job in 2024, was supported by chief executive, Mark Robinson, who was a former Crusaders team-mate.
His appointment as All Blacks coach was made by a New Zealand Rugby board that had no high-performance expertise on it and had been deemed by a major independent review to not be fit for purpose.
NZR’s head of high performance in this period was Mike Anthony, a former Crusaders conditioning coach who was a close, long-term friend of Robertson.
Chris Lendrum was head of professional rugby and instrumental in the decision to appoint Robertson six months before the 2023 World Cup and operate with a sitting All Blacks coach and an All Blacks coach elect.
It was seemingly all so cosy – no sense of a hard edge or robust discussions between professionals.
In the wake of these departures, NZR has radically restructured and has created a new position of high-performance director, a role that will be more akin to the one David Humphreys holds with Ireland and David Nucifora with Scotland.
The upshot is that in the wake of these departures, NZR has radically restructured and has created a new position of high-performance director, a role that will be more akin to the one David Humphreys holds with Ireland and David Nucifora with Scotland.
The high-performance director will hold responsibility for the performance of national teams, but quite specifically, the role will have a heavy focus on the All Blacks.
The sub-text here is that Anthony’s vacated position has been revamped partly because NZR has been aware for some time that is out of step with the rest of the world in not having a performance director attached to the national team, but also as a direct response to some of the collective failings highlighted in Robertson’s tenure.
It would seem that in Robertson’s two years, there was not enough scrutiny of his methods, set-up and strategies until December 2025 when a deep-dive, independent review was conducted.
The findings of the review have never been revealed but they were enough for Robertson to be sacked. The bits and bobs that have leaked out suggest there were issues, which started early in Robertson’s tenure, with the team’s culture and coaching set-up as it pertained to division of labour and the players’ understanding of it.
Two assistant coaches left the All Blacks in those two years without the reasons for their departures being adequately explained or independently investigated, while there were constant, valid, questions about the way the team consistently fell apart after half-time in 2025.
With, on face value, inadequate, independent oversight, problems deepened and player frustration grew to the point there was overwhelming damaging feedback across the squad by December 2025.
The performance director job is a game-changer in terms of how the All Blacks operate because it means there will be constant oversight of Rennie and his coaching team – an experienced figure with the power to ask questions, offer advice and mentor the group.
NZR chair David Kirk, who made the call to part company with Robertson, said the All Blacks weren’t on the right trajectory, and the bit that didn’t get said is that he didn’t believe that would change if the incumbent coach stayed at the helm.
“The decision to change the coach was taken by the board of New Zealand Rugby,” chairman Kirk told Newstalk ZB the day after Rennie was appointed.
“That is the accountability we have. We talked to a whole range of people and there was virtually no difference between which island they came from [North or South], no difference between which ethnicity they were, virtually no difference whether they were an old player or a young player, the trends and the themes were very consistent.”
The performance director job is a game-changer in terms of how the All Blacks operate because it means there will be constant oversight of Rennie and his coaching team – an experienced figure with the power to ask questions, offer advice and mentor the group.
It’s not clear yet if NZR is targeting anyone in particular, but the job description suggests that the likes of Sir Steve Hansen, Joe Schmidt and Ian Foster are the sorts of candidates that are likely under consideration.
A set-up that has, say, the World Cup-winning Hansen working closely with Rennie and the All Blacks, overseen by a functional board, presiding over an organisation that is expected to show in April that it is in better financial health, feels a million miles away from the situation in the Robertson era.
This is all about NZR recognising that the All Blacks drive about 80% of the game’s total revenue and their success is paramount to the commercial ambition being achieved.
It’s that simple – the All Blacks have to not just win, but play a brand of rugby that makes everyone think they can continue to win, if NZR is going to be able to find and retain global sponsors.
The only unknown that Rennie faces, is that NZR still hasn’t found a permanent chief executive to replace Robertson – long-term community rugby manager Steve Lancaster has been promoted in the interim.
But that one loose thread doesn’t feel like it could unravel the All Blacks and a team that few people in New Zealand could see winning the World Cup next year, is now, suddenly, a significantly better proposition.
Rennie himself was asked whether the All Blacks can win the 2027 World Cup, and he said: “The answer is yes and it will take a hell of a lot of work. It will take a lot of alignment. Rest assured, we’ll be working together.
"When you look at the game model, we’ve got to make sure our players and staff… are all aligned so we’re in the best possible position to execute and play well."
"It’s a sprint from here… I’m well aware that with the way the draw works out, as is typical fashion at World Cups we’re likely to meet South Africa in a quarter-final. We’ll get a bit of practice against them this year."
The increased optimism about the All Blacks’ future prospects is not driven purely by the vastly different set-up of the organisation, but also by the capability of Rennie.
Yes, NZR is better set-up now, but it would be remiss not to recognise what Rennie brings to the role through his experience, clarity and ability to build unifying and inclusive team cultures.
As Kirk said of Rennie: "The game is changing a lot and the Northern Hemisphere, in some cases, we don’t like to say it, but it’s true, are leading. So people who’ve been in that environment were valuable."
"Even more important than that was it was very obvious to us that he had an understanding of the game that was fit for purpose for us, for New Zealand, for our skills, for our natural ability and where we come from, this little island in the, islands in the bottom of the world. And he was able to articulate what it would take to win in world rugby."
Rennie himself isn’t yet ready to share his vision, only saying: “I’m really clear on the game we want to play and the detail within that – the type of athlete we need and how we’re going to make shifts.
"I won’t go into detail about that and I won’t throw the previous regime under the bus but I can assure you that I’ve watched a lot of footy already and I have some firm ideas about the shifts we need to make us better."
It seems like everyone on the All Blacks side are happy about the appointment. I'm guessing supporters is crossing their fingers on a brighter future. Being South African, I can only hope the standards stay the same and that they don't become even more potent than they already.
I tend to agree with Justin Marshall. Going back to past players is a sign of going backwards. Relying on past glories is never a good idea.