RENNIE STRIKES RIGHT BALANCE
Kiwi coach will not reinvent wheel with Warriors but he plans to keep them rolling along the road to success
NEW ZEALAND rugby coaches can be a bit Marmite for some but for rugby Scots yearning to see their teams winning regularly there is much to like about the cut of new Glasgow coach Dave Rennie’s jib. Putting aside the CV pored over since the Chiefs man was announced last year as Gregor Townsend’s successor, the success with the Wellington Lions and Manawatu Turbos, the New Zealand Under-20s world crown and transformation of the Chiefs from Waikato into Super Rugby champions, this week we got the chance to look into the 53-year-old’s eyes. He stared back, unflinching, and told it straight when asked of his plans for Glasgow.
The unique challenge for Rennie is to take over a Scottish team that is already successful and make it stronger. Some might feel there is more to lose than win with a squad that has lost a handful of key talents in the past year, and may lose linchpins Finn Russell and Jonny Gray next summer, but Rennie doesn’t see it that way.
From his background in New Zealand there is much to like about the Glasgow story, one he has taken an interest in since Townsend pitched up in Waikato in 2012 seeking coaching advice, but also much to improve.
‘You’ve got to remain innovative every year,’ said Rennie, when asked how much change he might implement. ‘The game changes, the laws change and interpretations and so on, so we’ll still try to lead the pack in regards to playing the type of game that stresses oppositions.
‘Historically, Glasgow have played a real hightempo game that forces the opposition to be stressed even when the ball’s over the sideline, so they can never switch off. That and interpreting laws to your advantage. But culture is a massive part of it and they’ve done a great job here in the past. So what we’ll end up doing is targeting different avenues that create a group of guys prepared to spill some blood for each other and work hard. That’s the attitude that wins you tight games at the finish.
‘But Glasgow play a really attacking brand of rugby and we’ll continue with that — it’s just about getting the balance right. We still want teams to have to really respect our pack. I reckon that if you drive well, all your moves off the back of them are more effective. That’s an area (assistant coach) Jonathan Humphreys has been putting a lot of time into. It’s attractive to me and I think wherever I went (on leaving New Zealand), we’d have worked really hard on stripping back skill sets to advance the game, which is what we’re doing here.
‘But the fact they’re at this stage now means we can push on even further. I’ve put a lot of emphasis on our ability to get in behind defences, keep ball alive and play at a tempo that opposition defences will be challenged by.
‘Over here, the defensive systems are a hell of a lot better than they are in Super Rugby. There seems to be a hell of a lot more emphasis put on it as well — you don’t tend to have the big blowouts over here that you get in our comps. That’s more of a challenge for the attack side of things.’ His assistant Jason O’Halloran worked with Rennie at Wellington but turned down an offer to join him at the Chiefs, preferring to join Vern Cotter at Scotland.
He said: ‘Dave will bring honesty, innovation and hard work — that’s what he’s all about.
‘The way he delivers information to players is second-to-none so in all Dave’s teams you see individual growth in players, and that’s what we need. No excuses, just an expectation on every player whether he’s first or fourth choice, to be the best he can be, every week, and we need that to find greater success at club and international level.’
Rennie’s was a novel appointment in that he is a Kiwi coach on his way up — the All Blacks job is definitely on his future wish-list — but he is not green around the gills. He knows he needs a stronger squad to compete in the Guinness Pro14 and Europe, after last season’s drop-off due to supplying the bulk of the Scotland squad, and will have some tasty discussions with the SRU over budget as he tries to persuade Russell and Gray, and others, to be part of his plans beyond 2018.
‘(Budget) is probably the biggest thing,’ Rennie acknowledged. ‘Gregor did a good job in identifying a lot of guys when they were younger and got them at a good price, but keeping them a few years later with the offers from France and England...
‘We talked about trying to get a few more foreigners to give us more depth during those international windows but in the end those guys are getting more money because they deserve to, with offers of serious money to go to clubs in France or England.
‘But there is a pretty strong academy system here, and we put a lot of emphasis on talent ID so we’ll be looking at a lot of kids at school, making sure we’re at the forefront of their development. It’s a young man’s game and they’re coming through younger and younger, so it’s about making sure they understand the expectations of being a professional athlete.
‘Often the challenge is around budget,’ he added. ‘But we’ll work hard on our game and I reckon any team can beat any other on their day. We’ve good men and I’ve been impressed with them.
‘They want to keep growing their games and play international rugby. If you have a lot of players aspiring to that, who knows what you can achieve? But it’s going to take a lot of hard work.’
‘YOU HAVE TO REMAIN INNOVATIVE EVERY YEAR AND PLAY A GAME THAT STRESSES OPPONENTS’