Scotsman Mike Blair will be in charge of the All Blacks’ attack from this season, but he predicts that Dave Rennie will have his say too.
The former Scotland scrum-half and captain has worked closely with the new All Blacks boss during their shared time at Glasgow Warriors and with Kobe in Japan, so he is well versed in how the head coach operates.
Blair has a real challenge on his hands, not just because he is the first foreign coach the team has employed, but also because the attack duties have changed hands frequently in recent seasons.
Brad Mooar was the first attack coach under Ian Foster in 2020, but he left the coaching team in 2022, with the head coach taking on the responsibilities along with Joe Schmidt through to the Rugby World Cup.
It was then Leon MacDonald’s turn, along with Jason Holland, during Scott Robertson’s first year in charge, and when the former departed that same year, Scott Hansen also had his say on the attacking structures.
Dave Rennie’s role in the attack
Rennie has now handed the reins to the Scotsman as the new coaching team looks to get the All Blacks back on track for the 2027 Rugby World Cup and while Blair has been entrusted with running the attack, he expects that the head coach will collaborate with him.
“Head coaches are all different, aren’t they? And the great thing about Rens is that he trusts you to do your area,” he told the Aotearoa Rugby Podcast.
“He knows that you’re putting the extra work in. You’re watching the extra videos. You’re taking the time to find a solution or find a strategy that’s going to beat the defence. But then Dave is smart, he can watch a video once, and he pinpoints it exactly and if he sees something, he’ll tell you.”
Rennie’s experience with attacking structures will certainly help the team and Blair.
“It’s a really interesting collaboration because Rens has traditionally done a lot of the turnover and counter-attack game,” the Scotsman continued.
“I actually did that when I coached at Glasgow with him. So I’ve learned a lot of my philosophies through what he’s done. So we’re pretty aligned now in in what term in in what that looks like.”
The 44-year-old does want the All Blacks attack to have a clear identity and plan, but stresses that it needs to be adaptable.
“You can make tweaks for certain opposition, but knowing what you’re looking for in a defence and how you can break that down has been really key to our relationship, but also the ability to challenge each other and ask questions around why you’re doing something or could we do this differently has been a strength as well,” he added.
Passion for attack
Blair started his senior coaching career at the Warriors, working as the club’s assistant coach under Gregor Townsend and then Rennie, whilst also dovetailing as the Scotland assistant coach between 2016 and 2021.
However, he got a massive opportunity in 2021 when he was unveiled as Edinburgh’s head coach, the team he represented as a player over 160 times between 2002 and 2012.
He stayed in that role until 2023, when he made the decision to step down from the position, a bold call considering there are just two club head coach jobs in Scotland.
Blair explained that a lack of support from the board and the lack of a director of rugby was part of the reason he quit the job and added that he prefers to focus solely on the attack too.
“The attack stuff is what I’m passionate about,” he said.
“I love getting players better, I love the detail around how to beat a particular defence and the different ways of doing that.
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“I found with the head coach role at Edinburgh, there wasn’t a huge support from a director of rugby or CEO or anything like that. So a lot of the recruitment, the man management, everything fell on my plate and as a result, that took away from my ability to coach the attack. I did coach the attack, but I felt I wasn’t able to fully focus on all the details, and I was churning out ideas, but there wasn’t the right kind of detail behind them.
“It was a pretty big decision to turn down another contract as a head coach because of what comes with that. There are only two [club] jobs in Scotland as head coach. So I think it was a brave call, but for me it was the right call. I enjoyed elements of the game, but the ability to just focus on attack in one area was something that I was really keen to do.”