{"id":539379,"date":"2026-03-14T06:12:20","date_gmt":"2026-03-14T06:12:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/539379\/"},"modified":"2026-03-14T06:12:20","modified_gmt":"2026-03-14T06:12:20","slug":"tana-umaga-quizzed-on-all-blacks-assistant-job-following-report","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/539379\/","title":{"rendered":"Tana Umaga quizzed on All Blacks assistant job following report"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Tana Umaga says he has not yet spoken with new All Blacks<\/a> head coach Dave Rennie, and that reports that he is a front-runner for an assistant coach role in the national set-up are a \u201cbit of a nuisance right now.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Moana Pasifika<\/a> head coach was asked about the speculation this week and said the only words he\u2019s been hearing about it are from his family, who are relaying the reports to him.<\/p>\n

Umaga\u2019s name came up on Wednesday, as long-time Kiwi commentator and pundit Scotty Stevenson claimed the former All Black captain\u2019s appointment as an assistant coach was set to be announced imminently.<\/p>\n

But Umaga himself wasn\u2019t so convinced.<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t really deal in speculation. I\u2019m really honoured and privileged to be involved in the conversation. But it\u2019s just that. I suppose it was my turn this week. I saw there\u2019s a lot of names involved in who Rens is looking for,\u201d Umaga told reporters in Auckland.<\/p>\n

\u201cMy family are the ones that are letting me know what\u2019s happening, and I\u2019m getting a lot of these texts, so I had to turn my phone off.\u201d<\/p>\n

The 52-year-old expressed a desire to be involved with the team, but wouldn\u2019t get ahead of himself.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere was a bit of interest in terms of having a chat with him [Rennie] from my agent to see if anything comes up, and said \u2018you wouldn\u2019t turn that down, would you?\u2019 So we\u2019re just waiting for those things to happen; if it happens, it happens.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou always want to set goals for yourself, you want to be part of the best and involved with the best. In my mind, the All Blacks have always been the best.<\/p>\n

\u201cUntil it\u2019s a done deal and everything\u2019s down on paper. It\u2019s speculation. It\u2019s great to be in that conversation, but it is a bit of a nuisance right now at this stage.\u201d<\/p>\n

Umaga was coached by Rennie in the 2000 Wellington Lions<\/a> team that ended a 14-year NPC title drought. The pair haven\u2019t coached together since Umaga transitioned from superstar to sideline strategist, but there is familiarity there.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe doesn\u2019t let much fluster him; he is very precise about what he wants and what he believes in,\u201d Umaga recalled. \u201cThat looks like a calmness and a steadiness to anything that he becomes a part of. He\u2019s added value everywhere he\u2019s been.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think he\u2019s very particular around the way he wants to play and the way he sees the game. I\u2019m a big believer in that myself. I think the game\u2019s awesome \u2013 it\u2019s just making sure that the way we deliver it is simple for our players to understand. Nowadays, the players can get overwhelmed. So, trying to simplify as much, and I think that\u2019s one of his strengths.<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd obviously culturally, he\u2019s very big on connection. And again, that\u2019s what I enjoy too. So those are probably the key things that stand out for me.\u201d<\/p>\n

The All Blacks are safely positioned in second place on the world rankings, with a buffer too great for any result in the final round of the Six Nations<\/a> to overcome. However, Scott Robertson\u2019s efforts with the team were ultimately deemed unsatisfactory, and Rennie faces significant challenges in his first season at the helm, not least of which being a new-look Test schedule that includes four games against the defending world champion Springboks.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat\u2019s an exciting challenge for Dave and his group that\u2019s coming in,\u201d Umaga said. \u201cWe\u2019re saying that we\u2019re feeling it here because we\u2019ve been knocked off our perch as number one, but we\u2019re not far away. The previous group weren\u2019t far away, and now it\u2019s been given to someone else, and so they\u2019ve got to try and get us back up to the top.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Tana Umaga says he has not yet spoken with new All Blacks head coach Dave Rennie, and that…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":539380,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[567],"tags":[64,63,760,85],"class_list":["post-539379","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-rugby","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-rugby","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/539379","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=539379"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/539379\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/539380"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=539379"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=539379"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=539379"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}