‘Rennie should be ABs coach’

IN news that will heap more pressure on Ian Foster ahead of Bledisloe II at Eden Park, Sir Graham Henry believes New Zealand Rugby “c**ked up” by not appointing Wallabies coach Dave Rennie as Steve Hansen’s successor as All Blacks coach.

The World Cup-winning All Blacks coach, who led the rugby mad nation to glory on home soil in 2011, was speaking at the Wairarapa Bush Rugby Sports Award function as a special guest when he was asked whether Foster - Hansen’s long-term assistant - was up for the job. While acknowledging that it was “too early” to make the call, the highly respected coach said New Zealand Rugby had missed a trick by failing to keep in contact with Rennie, who was appointed as Michael Cheika’s successor on November 20, 2019, but had been linked to the role for months earlier, after leaving the Shaky Isles in 2017 to take up a role in Scotland.

“It’s too early to tell, isn’t it?” he said. “Like the All Blacks were underdone, hadn’t played for six weeks, the Wallabies, their Super Rugby was much later than ours. Dave Rennie is a fabulous coach, no doubt. New Zealand Rugby c**ked that up. They should have been connecting with Dave and (Japan coach) Jamie Joseph and other people around the world to keep them involved in New Zealand Rugby. (But they) didn’t contact Dave Rennie for three years, and he is fabulous, so he’s going to do a great job with Australia. Whether they’ve got the personnel to be up there for the World Cup, I think they probably will with Dave Rennie.”