{"id":344775,"date":"2026-03-24T04:56:08","date_gmt":"2026-03-24T04:56:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/344775\/"},"modified":"2026-03-24T04:56:08","modified_gmt":"2026-03-24T04:56:08","slug":"all-blacks-neil-barnes-reflects-on-the-dave-rennie-phone-call-that-led-to-lead-assistant-role","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/344775\/","title":{"rendered":"All Blacks: Neil Barnes reflects on the Dave Rennie phone call that led to lead assistant role"},"content":{"rendered":"

\u201cI reached out to him because we\u2019ve coached together, but I actually felt he needed to come home for our country and our game,\u201d Barnes said. \u201cIf you haven\u2019t worked it out, I\u2019ve got a lot of faith in this man.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe asked me if I was available and I sent a message back, \u2018mate, that\u2019s not going to help you get the job\u2019.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat followed up with a phone call and then I was like, \u2018mate, are you serious?\u2019 It took a bit of comprehending to start with, but then I embraced it.<\/p>\n

\u201cI just thought he needs some encouragement because, like, people leave this country sometimes feeling a little bit hurt at times, but there\u2019s not that many people with his ability. So you\u2019re going to find that out in time. He\u2019s the right person for the job.\u201d<\/p>\n

The team of assistants sees Rennie put his stamp on the side<\/a>, having been appointed through till the end of the 2027 Rugby World Cup.<\/p>\n

Rennie was appointed as head coach earlier this month, replacing Scott Robertson, who was stood down in mid-January<\/a>, two years into what was supposed to be a four-year contract.<\/p>\n

\"NewNew All Blacks coach Dave Rennie. Photo \/ Dean Purcell<\/p>\n

Barnes admits being part of the All Blacks<\/a> was never on his radar but getting the chance to be involved is a special moment.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s taken a bit of grasping, but I\u2019m not frightened,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve gone to three World Cups with teams that are, you know, lesser, minor nations and still compete with the best, so inside of me, there\u2019s that inner confidence that I\u2019ve done the work and that I can actually work well with the players to make them better.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve had a meeting with Jason Ryan, we\u2019re unbelievably aligned. He\u2019s been a competitor of mine for a number of years, huge amount of respect for him, but that\u2019s mutual and once we got together and saw how aligned we were, it\u2019s going to be pretty powerful, to be honest.\u201d<\/p>\n

Barnes said it will be tough stepping away from his role with the Taranaki NPC side<\/a>, having only just re-signed with the province in January.<\/p>\n

During his time, he led the Bulls to an unbeaten first season, the 2023 NPC title and a successful Ranfurly Shield tenure between 2024-25.<\/p>\n

\u201cI care deeply about my province but when you get offered an opportunity like this and a challenge like this, I\u2019ve got a spring in my step again,\u201d Barnes said.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m really looking forward to this and I\u2019m under absolute no illusions at the size of this challenge, but people that know me understand that I\u2019m not afraid of that.\u201d<\/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":"\u201cI reached out to him because we\u2019ve coached together, but I actually felt he needed to come home…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":344776,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[5263,2731,58422,8136,3043,62319,49722,9635,18939,106,7240,18557,5158,11788,111,139,69,90,16792,6653,138234,17441,205,20585,213,199,1361,223,61],"class_list":["post-344775","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-sports","tag-all","tag-assistant","tag-barnes","tag-blacks","tag-call","tag-catalyst","tag-coaching","tag-dave","tag-encouraging","tag-head","tag-lead","tag-led","tag-man","tag-neil","tag-new-zealand","tag-newzealand","tag-nz","tag-on","tag-phone","tag-reflects","tag-rennie","tag-righthand","tag-role","tag-securing","tag-sports","tag-take","tag-that","tag-the","tag-to"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/344775","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=344775"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/344775\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/344776"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=344775"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=344775"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=344775"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}