{"id":326013,"date":"2026-03-12T13:38:12","date_gmt":"2026-03-12T13:38:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/326013\/"},"modified":"2026-03-12T13:38:12","modified_gmt":"2026-03-12T13:38:12","slug":"all-blacks-tana-umaga-honoured-to-be-linked-with-assistant-role-under-dave-rennie","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/326013\/","title":{"rendered":"All Blacks: Tana Umaga \u2018honoured\u2019 to be linked with assistant role under Dave Rennie"},"content":{"rendered":"

Umaga\u2019s contract is up at the end of the season with Moana, where he has been at the helm since 2024. He also has a close relationship with Ardie Savea<\/a>, who played at the Super Rugby Pacific franchise last year.<\/p>\n

The 52-year-old has coached roles with Toulon, Counties Manukau, New Zealand\u2019s under-20s, the Blues, Samoa and now Moana Pasifika.<\/p>\n

\"DaveDave Rennie was appointed All Blacks coach to replace Scott Robertson. Photo \/ Dean Purcell<\/p>\n

Rennie said last week when appointed that rebuilding the All Blacks, culture is vital, and somebody of Umaga\u2019s experience and calibre would be key, as he\u2019s regarded as a New Zealand great, having played 74 tests during his career, while serving as captain for two seasons.<\/p>\n

Rennie is also the first All Blacks coach of Pasifika heritage.<\/p>\n

Umaga<\/a> said he has been inundated with calls and messages since talk of a possible role surfaced but is trying not to read too much into it.<\/p>\n

\u201cI suppose it was my turn this week. I saw there were a lot of names involved in who Rens [Rennie] is looking for,\u201d Umaga said.<\/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. I\u2019m honoured to be involved in that conversation and if anything happens, I\u2019m sure people that are involved in those areas will let you know.\u201d<\/p>\n

Umaga insisted he was happy and passionate about what is happening at Moana Pasifika, and was happy to see Rennie get the role.<\/p>\n

\u201cI have faith in what he\u2019s doing and I\u2019m just getting in behind him as an All Black fan,\u201d Umaga said.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve played for the jersey and it means a lot to me and that hasn\u2019t changed wherever I go. It still means a lot to me and I\u2019m just glad that now we can get in behind someone and support them.\u201d<\/p>\n

Moana Pasifika face the Blues at Eden Park on Sunday, where they will look to snap a three-game losing streak. Former All Blacks prop Atu Moli will make his debut for the side.<\/p>\n

Ben Francis<\/a> is an Auckland-based reporter for the New Zealand Herald who covers breaking sports news.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Umaga\u2019s contract is up at the end of the season with Moana, where he has been at the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":326014,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[5263,2731,5195,8136,1320,49722,9635,305,42,27246,69063,5511,7055,41654,13617,43,425,31445,6046,10715,138234,205,312,9871,175753,1361,61,40,38,41,39,175754,8238,102],"class_list":["post-326013","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headlines","tag-all","tag-assistant","tag-be","tag-blacks","tag-coach","tag-coaching","tag-dave","tag-have","tag-headlines","tag-honoured","tag-insists","tag-just","tag-linked","tag-moana","tag-name","tag-news","tag-now","tag-pasifika","tag-potential","tag-remains","tag-rennie","tag-role","tag-says","tag-speculation","tag-tana","tag-that","tag-to","tag-top-news","tag-top-stories","tag-topnews","tag-topstories","tag-umaga","tag-under","tag-with"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/326013","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=326013"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/326013\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/326014"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=326013"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=326013"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=326013"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}