{"id":495335,"date":"2026-06-25T19:29:49","date_gmt":"2026-06-25T19:29:49","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/495335\/"},"modified":"2026-06-25T19:29:49","modified_gmt":"2026-06-25T19:29:49","slug":"all-blacks-legend-aaron-smith-reveals-underrated-part-of-dave-rennies-brilliance","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/495335\/","title":{"rendered":"All Blacks legend Aaron Smith reveals underrated part of Dave Rennie’s brilliance"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"\/<\/a><\/p>\n

All Blacks legend Aaron Smith has heaped praise on Dave Rennie and expects him to bring an attacking mindset to the team this season.<\/p>\n

The 62-year-old has taken over from Scott Robertson, who was criticised for his conservative style, and is tasked with making them genuine challengers ahead of the 2027 Rugby World Cup.<\/p>\n

They begin their Test campaign next month in the inaugural Nations Championship, facing France, Italy and Ireland in the mid-year Tests.<\/p>\n

Rennie<\/a> has selected a squad featuring four bolters, but in truth the most important thing for the supporters is how they play.<\/p>\n

The former Wallabies, Glasgow Warriors and Chiefs boss is renowned for taking an expansive approach and Smith doesn\u2019t expect him to cower when his tenure starts in earnest.<\/p>\n

\u2018Stern coach\u2019 and \u2018great motivator\u2019<\/p>\n

\u201cThe thing with Rens is his really attacking mindset kind of footy. He promotes your players to express yourselves, see space and push the boundaries of wherever you are, you can attack if the option\u2019s on, but don\u2019t half-pie it,\u201d he told Sport Nation.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat was one thing I always loved about it; if you\u2019re going to go, go and really commit. He\u2019s a stern coach, he\u2019s a great motivator and he had a way of talking to each player on a level that I found unique.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe liked a stern word and then he was pretty good at giving you a rub on the back. He just makes you feel really good about your game.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe\u2019s really clear in feedback. I didn\u2019t notice until I was a bit older how clear it was where I stood in the team because he was so open and transparent about my game and where I was at.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think as a player that\u2019s always good to know \u2013 just straight and direct around what he likes and what he doesn\u2019t like.\u201d<\/p>\n

Justin Marshall: Why Dave Rennie\u2019s left-field scrum-half call is \u2018not surprising\u2019<\/a><\/p>\n

Smith was coached by Rennie early in his career while playing for New Zealand\u2019s U20 side and Manawatu in the NPC.<\/p>\n

He has also been on the receiving end of the new All Blacks<\/a> head coach\u2019s brilliance while playing for the Highlanders against his Chiefs outfit and more recently in Japan.<\/p>\n

The scrum-half has been playing for Toyota Verblitz since the conclusion of the 2023 Rugby World Cup and he saw Rennie\u2019s Kobelco Kobe Steelers claim the title recently.<\/p>\n

Rennie\u2019s attacking mindset<\/p>\n

\u201cThe way rugby is now, it\u2019s such a defensive and positional game, and it\u2019s really tactical. I remember my early days of rugby, we would do about 20 per cent \u2018D\u2019 and the rest was attack,\u201d Smith said.<\/p>\n

\u201cNow it\u2019s almost the other way, about 60-40 including kick strategy, and it\u2019s just gone so far that way because defences are so hard to break down.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think the way rugby\u2019s going, and I was one on the end of two pretty decent beatings from Kobe this season, seeing that type of rugby of short passes, high tempo and KBA \u2013 keeping the ball alive \u2013 it\u2019s really hard to defend.<\/p>\n

\u201cAny momentum they got they would go through the same area and keep hammering at it. It\u2019s really hard to stop and I think he\u2019s going to really promote players to keep up and wherever the space is in front of them, just keep smashing into it.\u201d<\/p>\n

Smith also believes that there is an underrated part of Rennie\u2019s coaching which could give a real edge to the All Blacks squad.<\/p>\n

\u201cOne of Rens\u2019 big things and it doesn\u2019t get talked about enough is probably his mindset at ruck time,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe\u2019s got a real thing of anything near the ruck, it\u2019s got to be hit, gone or just hit it if you even think you can hit it.<\/p>\n

\u201cI remember being out the back of some of those Chiefs rucks and I wasn\u2019t really near it, but I was close enough\u2026 and bang! That was the one game I didn\u2019t hang too close to the rucks.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf you play his types of teams, he\u2019s going to have a real attacking mindset but if you want to put your head on the ball, you\u2019ve got to bite the mouthguard.\u201d<\/p>\n

READ MORE: Jordie Barrett: The \u2018biggest challenge\u2019 going into All Blacks camp as they could go away from \u2018Crusaders style\u2019<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"All Blacks legend Aaron Smith has heaped praise on Dave Rennie and expects him to bring an attacking…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":495336,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[169306,1463,1464,111,43,139,69,213],"class_list":["post-495335","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-sports","tag-dave-rennie","tag-home-page","tag-internationals","tag-new-zealand","tag-news","tag-newzealand","tag-nz","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/495335","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=495335"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/495335\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/495336"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=495335"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=495335"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=495335"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}