{"id":500889,"date":"2026-06-29T10:18:12","date_gmt":"2026-06-29T10:18:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/500889\/"},"modified":"2026-06-29T10:18:12","modified_gmt":"2026-06-29T10:18:12","slug":"authentic-all-blacks-dig-into-legacy-before-first-test-under-rennie","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/500889\/","title":{"rendered":"‘Authentic’: All Blacks dig into legacy before first Test under Rennie"},"content":{"rendered":"

The new All Blacks regime under head coach Dave Rennie has taken a back-to-basics approach to the squad\u2019s preparation for the first Test of the year this Saturday \u2013 including a re-examination of New Zealand\u2019s rugby \u201clegacy\u201d.<\/p>\n

1News has learned that one of the criticisms of the former coaching group, headed by Scott Robertson, was its move away from the near mythological touchstones of the All Blacks, so there was little surprise to hear today that one of Rennie\u2019s first tasks was to reinstate them.<\/p>\n

There is little doubt, either, that new assistant coach Tana Umaga, a former All Blacks captain, will have made his presence felt here.<\/p>\n

Another assistant, Jason Ryan, who began with the All Blacks in 2022 under Ian Foster and who also coached with Robertson over the last two years before the man known as Razor was sacked in January<\/a>, revealed today in Christchurch ahead of the Test against France that the All Blacks\u2019 legacy had been front of mind recently.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ve dug in really deep to the All Black legacy over the last couple of days and in our non-finalists’ camp which has been really authentic,\u201d Ryan said.<\/p>\n

Gathering those squad members from the Highlanders, Crusaders and Blues into camp during the week of the Super Rugby Pacific grand final allowed Rennie and his assistants to lay the foundations thath have been built on since with six training sessions ahead of Saturday\u2019s Nations Championship Test at Te Kaha Stadium.<\/p>\n

With such little time to prepare \u2013 not unusual at this time of year \u2013 the All Blacks have unsurprisingly kept it simple over the past fortnight.<\/p>\n

\"All<\/p>\n

All Blacks head coach Dave Rennie. (Source: Photosport)<\/p>\n

Ryan described Rennie\u2019s impact as \u201cunbelievable”. <\/p>\n

“[He’s] tremendously clear on what he wants. Pretty strong in his messaging around how that\u2019s needed and what is required, which is great, especially for a forwards coach,” Ryan said: “One of the things that Rens has driven is being \u2018brilliant at basics\u2019 so we\u2019ve put in a lot of skill work in each area and each player. <\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve got no doubt that that skill execution that we\u2019re really driving will play a part in the structure of how we play together. There are combinations that are playing well too so I\u2019m sure the selectors will look at that to get a little cohesion out of the blocks in the first game.\u201d<\/p>\n

Ryan, who sold mining equipment on the West Coast before rolling the dice and going all in on coaching<\/a> at Canterbury after being asked by then head coach Robertson, has a good line in dry humour which is helpful in his line of work.<\/p>\n

There are few guarantees, as he knows only too well. He was offered the job by Foster after previous forwards assistant John Plumtree was sacked and Ryan has seen both Foster and Robertson lose their roles.<\/p>\n

Asked about his coaching journey with the All Blacks, Ryan said: \u201cHave you seen Lone Survivor? Yeah, look I just try to do my job the best I can. There have been a few spanners thrown in there and a few different moving parts. But I\u2019d like to say personally that I\u2019ve stayed pure to who I am. I\u2019ve been lucky enough to get an opportunity with Rens and this crew and I\u2019m looking forward to it.\u201d<\/p>\n

There may be danger in mentioning a movie starring Mark Wahlberg which featured four Navy SEALs entering Afghanistan in a failed 2005 mission given the French have made the rugby ambush into a near art form, but Ryan is nothing if not an optimist. <\/p>\n

\"All<\/p>\n

All Blacks captain Ardie Savea trains with the team. (Source: Photosport)<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s well behind me now. There was some uncertainty, obviously. But when I got the message from Rens it was pretty special.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt meant a lot. I want to coach my country and there\u2019s no other team I\u2019d want to coach in the world than the All Blacks. It\u2019s a special team. It meant a lot to me.\u201d<\/p>\n

Ryan\u2019s optimism not surprisingly extends to an All Blacks pack which will be tested in various ways over the next three weeks, starting with France and including Italy in Wellington and Ireland in Auckland.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis forward pack has learned a lot of tough lessons over the last two or three years but I firmly believe that the best is ahead of it,\u201d he said. <\/p>\n

\u201cWe debuted a few over the last couple of years and we have Ardie [Savea] and Codie [Taylor] who both played their 100th test last year so there\u2019s still a lot of experience as well.\u201d<\/p>\n

Ryan did have some bad news on prop Tamaiti Williams, however.<\/p>\n

Williams, who was admitted to hospital with a spinal infection<\/a> in March, was highly unlikely to tour South Africa, he said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The new All Blacks regime under head coach Dave Rennie has taken a back-to-basics approach to the squad\u2019s…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":500890,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[789,111,139,69,213],"class_list":["post-500889","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\/500889","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=500889"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/500889\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/500890"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=500889"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=500889"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=500889"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}