Tough arrival time for Rennie
As a coach Dave Rennie has shown a knack for rugby alchemy, turning base players into gold, yet his main problem as Wallabies coach may lie off the field.
When staff on the Rugby Australia board blabbed they were planning to appoint Dave Rennie to replace the retired Michael Cheika, it prompted a pre-emptive debate as to whether Rennie was the man for the job.
No, growled the likes of leading rugby writer Greg Growden, for the Sydney Morning Herald.
It should be Eddie Jones, Growden wrote, with a forward pack of supporters and a backline more outside him.
Growden and others argue Jones would appease longsuffering Wallabies supporters, particularly those who believed the head coach must be Australian.
‘‘Who is the best Australian coach out there? There’s no argument. Jones by a country mile,’’ he wrote.
Former test fullback Greg Martin has said he doesn’t ‘‘want another Kiwi coaching the national team’’.
News of Rennie’s impending appointment was ‘‘terrible’’, Martin said.
Now Rennie has been confirmed the man for the job, can he can expect the kind of ambivalence former Crusaders coach Robbie ‘Dingo’ Deans had to endure as an outsider?
Of the last three Wallabies coaches, Deans was the arguably the most successful.
He was also arguably the most criticised.
Ewen McKenzie won 50 per cent of his tests. Cheika ran at 52 per cent. Deans 59 per cent.
Deans was targeted with sustained criticism after the 2011 World Cup.
Ex-Wallaby Martin suggested he was a trojan horse sent from New Zealand to wreck Australian rugby, with plenty of other more logical theories given credence.
So Rennie will arrive with that history to learn from.
He will arrive with the clamour for Jones and the words of axed fullback Israel Folau still echoing off the Sydney Opera House.
He will arrive to a work for an organisation that appears bent – if not broken – his appointment announced two days after Cameron Clyne announced he was to step down as RA chairman.
For Rennie, it could be a case of having to keep his head when those all around him are losing theirs.
Based on his record, Rennie won’t be too bothered about the politics. As a former publican, he’s no doubt well acquainted with pub talk as well.
His background, a mix of publican – tough when required, friendly when not – and teacher, is a good fit for coaching.
With Upper Hutt, Wellington, Manawatu¯ and the Chiefs he was a mix of hardnosed and tuneful, pulling out the guitar when the work was done.
At all of those teams, and with Glasgow Warriors in Scotland, Rennie improved the teams he handled (and not all had lavish talent).
A former Manawatu¯ Rugby Union staff member told he recalled when Rennie arrived in Palmerston North, after the Turbos had suffered a run of what could kindly be called outs.
‘‘We were bloody ordinary when he came,’’ the staffer said. ‘‘Rens came in and looked at what we had, sorted it and built the team.
‘‘He didn’t have much to choose from, but he made a decent team. He’s a big loss to New Zealand Rugby.’’
Among those he credited Rennie with initially spotting were halfback Aaron Smith, Aaron Cruden and Ngani Laumape, and the likes of Andre Taylor who proved an excellent Super Rugby player.
Rennie took the Chiefs to back-to-back titles in 2012 and 2013.
Under Rennie (with former All Blacks coach Wayne Smith riding shotgun for three years) the Chiefs never missed the Super Rugby playoffs.
His Glasgow Warriors too, have tasted finals football, making the Pro14 semifinals in his first season, then losing the final to Leinster in the season just gone.
Under Rennie, New Zealand won the under-20 world title three times on end.
It’s often been said his greatest quality is in bringing a team together, to make them more than the sum of its parts.
From his Chiefs squad of 2012, Brodie Retallick, Ben Afeaki, Tawera Kerr-Barlow, Sam Cane and Augustine Pulu went on to make the All Blacks.
Under Rennie, under-rated players such as Asaeli Tikoirototuma, Tim NanaiWilliams, Robbie Robinson, Andrew Horrell, Ben Tameifuna and Michael Fitzgerald flourished.
Bundee Aki (Ireland) and Gareth Anscombe (Wales) were among the unsung players to graduate to international rugby out of Rennie’s Chiefs.
At the Chiefs, Rennie built an off-field culture that involved visiting small towns, getting his players doing community work.
On the field his no-nonsense approach constructed a titanium-strength defence, reluctant to concede silly penalties.
‘‘Rens was very good with players, you knew where you stood with them,’’ the Manawatu¯ staffer said.
‘‘There were a few dummy spitters, but not many.’’
No doubt learning the chords to Waltzing Matilda will rate high on Rennie’s initial task list.
Let’s hope he can get all Australians singing from the same songsheet.