{"id":500581,"date":"2026-06-29T05:19:16","date_gmt":"2026-06-29T05:19:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/500581\/"},"modified":"2026-06-29T05:19:16","modified_gmt":"2026-06-29T05:19:16","slug":"all-blacks-jason-ryan-on-culture-clarity-and-freedom-under-dave-rennie","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/500581\/","title":{"rendered":"All Blacks: Jason Ryan on culture, clarity and freedom under Dave Rennie"},"content":{"rendered":"

\u201cHave you seen Lone Survivor?\u201d Ryan quipped with an extended chuckle. The 15-strong media scrum joined him in the unexpected giggle.<\/p>\n

\"AllAll Blacks assistant coach Jason Ryan fronts media in Christchurch ahead of the test match against France on Saturday. Photo \/ Mike Thorpe<\/p>\n

Ryan and the media haven\u2019t always shared a chorus like that. The cauliflower-eared former front-rower is known to have a fuse to match his stature.<\/p>\n

The humour and honesty in his answer spoke volumes of where Ryan is in the transition from \u201cRazor\u201d to \u201cRens\u201d. Critics of the previous regime had suggested communications weren\u2019t clear \u2013 neither were the roles of the coaching team.<\/p>\n

Asked how the first \u201ctest week\u201d with Rennie was going and if there was anything different \u201cworking under Dave\u201d, Ryan did not flinch.<\/p>\n

\u201cUnbelievable. Tremendously clear on what he wants. Pretty strong in his messaging around how that\u2019s needed and what\u2019s required, which is great, especially for a forwards coach,\u201d Ryan said.<\/p>\n

\"JasonJason Ryan (from left) is the only one remaining from the previous All Blacks coaching team, following the exits of Jason Holland, Scott Robertson, Scott Hansen and Leon McDonald. Photo \/ Photosport<\/p>\n

Ryan admits that there was some uncertainty around his future when the management team that he was part of was prematurely terminated by New Zealand Rugby, two years before their contract was due to end.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019d like to say personally I\u2019ve just stayed pure to who I am, and I\u2019ve been lucky enough to get an opportunity with Rens in this crew and really looking forward to it,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s no other team that I\u2019d rather coach in the world than the All Blacks.\u201d<\/p>\n

Ryan has been joined in the stewardship of the forwards by the straight-talking, no-nonsense Neil Barnes. The pair have clearly defined roles.<\/p>\n

\u201cBarnesy\u2019s doing the lineout attack and D [defence] and has a lot of the strategy side of it, with Mike [Blair]. So it leaves me with the scrummaging side of it, the maul attack and D.<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd we\u2019re all doing a little bit of ball-carrying, breakdown and helping Tana [Umaga] with little D drills. We\u2019re sort of across everything, and that\u2019s how Rens likes it.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"AllAll Blacks head coach Dave Rennie (centre), flanked by selectors Sir Graham Henry (left) and Neil Barnes before the team naming in Feilding. Photo \/ Mark Mitchell<\/p>\n

As the media pack made their way upstairs to the press conference at the team hotel, they were asked not to film team material that adorned the walls \u2013 though Ryan spoke to it with some freedom.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ve dug in really deep to the All Black[s] legacy the last couple of days in our \u2018non-finals camp\u2019 [for players not involved in the Super Rugby Pacific final], which has been really authentic and unique to the All Blacks, understanding a little bit of who we want to be as a team.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe boys have really owned that and Rens has led that really well.\u201d<\/p>\n

For fans, Ryan\u2019s closing words on how the team prepare this week should allay any fears that the side will be coached within an inch of their lives.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think the important thing now is that we get our rugby detail in the beginning of the week and then we just sort of step back as coaches and go and let them play so they can play free and enjoy it.\u201d<\/p>\n

Even as Ryan left the media stand-up, fielding a question after \u201clast question\u201d, he did so in good humour. It had been noted that former M\u0101ori All Blacks captain Ash Dixon had been spotted in camp. The 37-year-old hooker played for Rennie at Kobe in Japan this season, winning the League One title three weeks ago.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe\u2019s just doing a little bit of throwing work [helping the hookers out]. He\u2019s not selectable!\u201d Ryan added \u2013 with another hearty guffaw.<\/p>\n

Mike Thorpe<\/a> is a senior multimedia journalist for the Herald, based in Christchurch. He has been a broadcast journalist across television and radio for 20 years and joined the Herald in August 2024.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"\u201cHave you seen Lone Survivor?\u201d Ryan quipped with an extended chuckle. The 15-strong media scrum joined him in…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":500582,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[5263,95,30459,155132,8136,10040,12974,18614,2396,9635,24267,305,250018,29116,101,112116,32033,111,139,69,90,138234,8986,5128,8139,7811,213,684,8238],"class_list":["post-500581","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-sports","tag-all","tag-and","tag-atmospheric","tag-barometer","tag-blacks","tag-camp","tag-change","tag-clarity","tag-culture","tag-dave","tag-freedom","tag-have","tag-itd","tag-jason","tag-left","tag-measure","tag-moved","tag-new-zealand","tag-newzealand","tag-nz","tag-on","tag-rennie","tag-robertson","tag-ryan","tag-scott","tag-since","tag-sports","tag-there","tag-under"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/500581","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=500581"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/500581\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/500582"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=500581"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=500581"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=500581"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}