{"id":344472,"date":"2026-03-24T00:41:08","date_gmt":"2026-03-24T00:41:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/344472\/"},"modified":"2026-03-24T00:41:08","modified_gmt":"2026-03-24T00:41:08","slug":"all-blacks-coach-dave-rennie-confirms-assistants","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/344472\/","title":{"rendered":"All Blacks coach Dave Rennie confirms assistants"},"content":{"rendered":"

The All Blacks have confirmed Dave Rennie’s assistant coaches.<\/p>\n

Rennie, who took over as coach<\/a> from Scott Robertson, will be joined by attack coach Mike Blair, defence coach Tana Umaga, forwards coach Jason Ryan \u2014 who worked with Robertson and Ian Foster \u2014 and senior assistant coach Neil Barnes.<\/p>\n

Phil Healey would be head of performance. <\/p>\n

“This is a very experienced and highly skilled coaching team,” Rennie said.<\/p>\n

“Each of these men has\u00a0a track record\u00a0of\u00a0getting the best out of the players and teams they coach, and they are each hugely motivated\u00a0to get stuck in and deliver the same success with the All Blacks.”<\/p>\n

Former Scotland halfback Blair currently worked with Rennie at Kobelco Kobe Steelers in Japan. He’ll join at the end of the Japanese season, subject to getting a work visa.<\/p>\n

“Neil provides outstanding leadership and strategic support; Jase\u00a0has proven himself as one of the best forwards coaches in the game; Tana brings immense mana and defensive insight; and Mike\u00a0will bring his\u00a0innovative approach and attention to detail\u00a0to\u00a0our attack.\u00a0I know this group will challenge and support\u00a0both me and\u00a0our players to\u00a0bring the best out of us all,” Rennie said.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

TVNZ’s Scotty Stevenson first reported<\/a> Umaga was in line for a position earlier this month. <\/p>\n

“I\u2019ve got to make sure that I do well with Moana Pasifika and respect the time that I\u2019ve got here,” Umaga said today.<\/p>\n

“I\u2019ll apply the same things I learned when I was an All Black in terms of\u00a0‘am I going to leave Moana in a better place?’ I\u2019m here until the end of the season and we\u2019ve still got things we want to achieve before then.”<\/p>\n

Taranaki coach Barnes has previously worked with Rennie at the Chiefs, and has international experience with Italy, Canada and Fiji, including at three World Cups. <\/p>\n

New Zealand Rugby Interim chief executive Steve Lancaster acknowledged the efforts of the outgoing assistants \u2014 Scott Hansen, Tamati Ellison and Bryn Evan.<\/p>\n

“They have each made\u00a0important\u00a0contributions to the team and\u00a0I know they\u00a0have all got a lot more to give as world-class coaches.”<\/p>\n

Ellison would coach the M\u0101ori All Blacks. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The All Blacks have confirmed Dave Rennie’s assistant coaches. Rennie, who took over as coach from Scott Robertson,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":344473,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[789,111,139,69,213],"class_list":["post-344472","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-sports","tag-all-blacks","tag-new-zealand","tag-newzealand","tag-nz","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/344472","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=344472"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/344472\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/344473"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=344472"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=344472"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=344472"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}