{"id":828521,"date":"2026-07-28T06:32:08","date_gmt":"2026-07-28T06:32:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/828521\/"},"modified":"2026-07-28T06:32:08","modified_gmt":"2026-07-28T06:32:08","slug":"dave-rennie-rassie-erasmus-is-the-most-innovative-coach-and-incredibly-influential-at-world-rugby","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/828521\/","title":{"rendered":"Dave Rennie: Rassie Erasmus is the ‘most innovative coach’ and incredibly influential at World Rugby"},"content":{"rendered":"

All Blacks head coach Dave Rennie has hailed his Springboks<\/a> counterpart Rassie Erasmus ahead of Rugby\u2019s Greatest Rivalry Series.<\/p>\n

Erasmus has been at the forefront of South Africa\u2019s turnaround since 2018, taking over as head coach from Allister Coetzee when the Boks were ranked seventh on the World Rugby rankings.<\/p>\n

All Blacks boss praises Rassie Erasmus and Springboks<\/p>\n

He led the side to Rugby World Cup glory in Japan the following year before handing over the head coaching reins to Jacques Nienaber as he assumed the director of rugby duties. He remained heavily involved with the team between 2020 and 2023 before reclaiming the coaching reins two years ago.<\/p>\n

Last year, South Africa won 12 of their 14 Test matches, going unbeaten in November after winning the Rugby Championship, and have started 2026 similarly, winning all three of their opening matches despite Erasmus making a plethora of changes from week to week during the July Nations Championship games<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Most notably, the Springboks<\/a> boss named an incredibly youthful outfit to face Scotland at Loftus Versfeld in round two of the competition. Despite that, they managed to claim a 42-28 victory in Pretoria, which impressed the All Blacks<\/a> head coach.<\/p>\n

\u201cI mean they\u2019re phenomenal, aren\u2019t they? They made so many changes against Scotland, who are an excellent side, and still were able to dominate that game,\u201d he remarked after naming his touring squad for Rugby\u2019s Greatest Rivalry tour<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cRassie has done an unbelievable job over the last eight years. He\u2019s probably the most innovative coach. I think he\u2019s incredibly influential too, and they\u2019ve done a good job around World Rugby. We know that they will be very detailed and very planned. They would have watched our series closely.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe has used a lot of players that we know a fair bit about; a lot of his boys play in Japan, a lot of them play in Europe, and then they\u2019ve got guys who are playing in that URC. They have got amazing depth \u2013 that\u2019s exciting. It\u2019s a good challenge for us, and we will learn a lot about ourselves over the first three weeks leading into that first Test.\u201d<\/p>\n

Springboks slammed for \u2018legally correct but morally corrupt\u2019 tactics as outspoken pundit hopes All Blacks will get a \u2018hard referee\u2019<\/a><\/p>\n

Dave Rennie has already picked his team for Springboks showdown as All Blacks boss details how travel disruptions have influenced selections<\/a><\/p>\n

Dave Rennie\u2019s mum on minimum requirements<\/p>\n

Realising the challenge that awaits his team in South Africa, the head coach wasn\u2019t willing to disclose what he expects from his charges throughout the series.<\/p>\n

\u201cI will probably be safer not to comment on that,\u201d Rennie<\/a> quipped after being asked what his minimum requirements are.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut we want to win, and we want to win each week. We are playing the best team in the world, and it couldn\u2019t come at a better time for us.<\/p>\n

All Blacks squad: Five takeaways as Dave Rennie \u2018bulks up\u2019 for Springboks showdown and leaves room for \u2018experimentation\u2019 in South Africa<\/a><\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ve had a month together. I think we\u2019ve made good shifts. We have got an understanding of our DNA and a game we want to play, and we just need to get better, and now we\u2019re going to be tested against phenomenal sides on their home pitch.<\/p>\n

Want more from Planet Rugby? Add us as a preferred source on Google to your favourites list<\/a> for world-class coverage you can trust.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s exciting. So I\u2019m not particularly looking at numbers and things; we\u2019ll focus on it one game at a time, and I guarantee these boys will empty the tank each week.\u201d<\/p>\n

Rennie\u2019s main remit as head coach is to get the All Blacks back on track for the 2027 Rugby World Cup, and he believes that the tour of South Africa will provide plenty of answers as to which players are up to scratch as they build towards the tournament.<\/p>\n

He has included three uncapped players in his squad and has recalled Timoci Tavatavanawai, Emoni Narawa, Rieko Ioane, Fabian Holland, George Bell, Ollie Norris and Ethan Blackadder, who were not involved during the Nations Championship.<\/p>\n

READ MORE:\u00a0Dave Rennie\u2019s \u2018point of difference\u2019 verdict on All Blacks back-row selections and Du\u2019Plessis Kirifi snub<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"All Blacks head coach Dave Rennie has hailed his Springboks counterpart Rassie Erasmus ahead of Rugby\u2019s Greatest Rivalry…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":828522,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[567],"tags":[64,63,228143,818,1182,1736,44,10531,760,1183,85],"class_list":["post-828521","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-rugby","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-dave-rennie","tag-home-page","tag-internationals","tag-new-zealand","tag-news","tag-rassie-erasmus","tag-rugby","tag-south-africa","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/828521","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=828521"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/828521\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/828522"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=828521"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=828521"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=828521"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}