Tana Umaga has opened up on a revelation from Sonny Bill Williams regarding the legendary former All Blacks captain\u2019s relationship with younger players in his role as a coach.<\/p>\n
Earlier this week, it was confirmed that Umaga has been appointed to new All Blacks boss Dave Rennie\u2019s backroom staff ahead of their upcoming Tests against France, Italy and Ireland in New Zealand in July.<\/p>\n
Umaga<\/a> will be New Zealand<\/a>\u2018s new defence coach and is joined by former Scotland international Mike Blair and Neil Barnes as the new faces in the coaching group.<\/p>\n Barnes will serve as senior assistant coach, while Blair is in charge of the attack and Jason Ryan remains as forwards coach.<\/p>\n Umaga made 74 Test appearances for the All Blacks on the wing or at centre between 1997 and 2005 and captained the men in black from 2004 onwards until his international retirement.<\/p>\n Highly respected in New Zealand<\/p>\n As a former All Blacks skipper, Umaga is a respected figure in New Zealand rugby who currently serves as Moana Pasifika\u2019s head coach.<\/p>\n Earlier this week, after his appointment as one of Rennie\u2019s assistants was confirmed, Umaga shared a tale about his earlier days in coaching when he was annoyed at why younger players were struggling to approach him and the revealing feedback which he received from fellow ex-All Black Williams<\/a>.<\/p>\n \u201cIt was Sonny Bill Williams that kind of told me that \u2018everyone\u2019s scared of you, Tana. They\u2019re scared because of your reputation\u2019,\u201d said the 52-year-old who will continue in his role as Moana Pasifika\u2019s coach until the completion of the Super Rugby Pacific campaign in June.<\/p>\n Umaga made the transition from playing to coaching during his stint at French club Toulon, where Williams started his rugby union career after switching codes from rugby league.<\/p>\n Why Tana Umaga is \u2018never one to assume\u2019 about adding to his All Blacks legacy and his blunt revelation about Moana Pasifika role<\/a><\/p>\n Since then, Umaga also had spells as a head coach at Counties-Manukau and the Blues and has learned to become more accommodating of younger players, who have plenty of respect for him due to his outstanding career as a player.<\/p>\n \u2018I\u00a0spent a lot of time just trying to be myself\u2019<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s funny, as soon as I finished playing and those things, I spent a lot of time just trying to be myself and not be what everyone made me out to be as the All Black captain because that\u2019s all anyone would call me,\u201d he explained.<\/p>\n \u201cIt was probably in my coaching roles, and you say your door\u2019s open, but I didn\u2019t have many players coming through in my early career. I wondered why.\u201d<\/p>\n