All Blacks legend Aaron Smith has hailed Dave Rennie\u2019s \u201crefreshing\u201d approach as head coach after his outstanding start to life in the hotseat.<\/p>\n
The 62-year-old took over from Scott Robertson, who was often rather guarded in his press conferences.<\/p>\n
In contrast, Smith, who played under Rennie<\/a> at U20 level, believes that the new All Blacks<\/a> boss has been more open during the early part of his tenure.<\/p>\n Praise for Dave Rennie<\/p>\n \u201cI don\u2019t watch many coaches\u2019 pressers but when I hear Dave Rennie speak, I feel like I\u2019m getting the honest truth, educated, and a pretty honest view of what he wants,\u201d the former scrum-half told the Aotearoa Rugby Pod.<\/p>\n \u201cThat\u2019s been really refreshing and I\u2019ve really enjoyed that.\u201d<\/p>\n Rennie was hired in March but didn\u2019t take charge of a match until July where New Zealand claimed three successive victories in the Nations Championship.<\/p>\n They defeated France, Italy and Ireland at home, results and performance which showed promise, but the biggest challenge was always going to be the South African tour.<\/p>\n However, the All Blacks have been impressive so far, winning all the games against the home franchises and, most importantly, taking a 1-0 series lead with victory over the Springboks<\/a> in Johannesburg.<\/p>\n New Zealand drew first blood by overcoming the hosts 33-16 at Ellis Park, but Smith still believes that there is room for improvement.<\/p>\n The 37-year-old is not expecting the Boks to be quite as profligate this weekend and insists the tourists have to be on their guard.<\/p>\n \u201cThe South Africans will be a lot better, they\u2019ve now got footage of each other. Some of the South African attack in moments looked pretty dangerous and pretty brutal, but also the All Blacks have got to be a lot better,\u201d Smith said.<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019m still a little bit baffled, and I know both teams are trying to play really aggressively, how many points we turned down off the boot.<\/p>\n \u201c[Ruben] Love looks like he has a rocket off the boot and if you think that it\u2019s Ellis Park, that\u2019s 90 seconds for a rest. It\u2019s just one of those things but they\u2019ve got through the hardest game and throws this whole series into a pretty awesome spot.\u201d<\/p>\n