New All Blacks assistant Mike Blair has revealed what quickly made him feel comfortable when he met up with Dave Rennie’s management team for the first time in Auckland.
The former Scotland scrum-half was named in mid-March as one of New Zealand’s incoming assistants under Rennie following the removal of Scott Robertson as head coach. Blair stepped away from his role as Edinburgh head coach at the end of the 2022/23 season to upskill his ability as a specialist attack coach.
This resulted in him joining Rennie at the Kobelco Kobe Steelers in Japan, renewing a relationship that had started when the New Zealander was in charge at Glasgow Warriors. Rennie has now recruited Blair as part of the revised All Blacks set-up and the staff recently gathered for a two-day familiarisation ahead of their Nations Championship opener at home to Ireland on July 4.
Rennie’s coaching group includes senior assistant Neil Barnes, defence coach Tana Umaga, forwards coach Jason Ryan and head of performance Phil Healey, and Blair described meeting them in person as an awesome experience even though they were quickly on the Scot’s case.
“Awesome…”
“It was awesome,” he said in an interview on the All Blacks YouTube channel. “So, the Monday, Tuesday, we had two full days with the management and I was a bit apprehensive before but within five minutes, I felt so comfortable. Loved it.
“I know a lot of New Zealanders anyway, and I loved the banter. I was getting absolutely ripped a new one within five minutes of meeting people, so that made me feel really comfortable in that environment. That was a big thing to get those two days done, get our planning started, look at what our game model looks like, planning for the July campaign and into South Africa as well. It was exciting.”
Blair, who is back in Japan along with Rennie preparing the Steelers for this Saturday’s League One semi-final at home to Tokyo Sungoliath, has promised himself not to allow the enormity of his new role with the All Blacks prevent him from kicking on in the post. It’s a lesson he took from the 2009 British and Irish Lions. Having failed to make the squad originally selected by Ian McGeechan, he was called up before the departure to South Africa as a replacement for the injured Tomás O’Leary.
However, rather than give his best to go on and make the Test team, he instead got distracted by the achievement of getting selected to tour and is still harbouring regrets from that trip 17 years later. “I am really conscious of not being happy just because I got the role with the ABs,” he explained. “Like, I got selected for the 2009 British Lions to South Africa and I felt really pleased that I had been selected.
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“I missed out on the initial selection, but then there was an injury and I came straight in and I was happy to have got selected. It was a relief because, you know, I thought I should have been there and when I did get selected, I was, ‘Oh great, I am a British and Irish Lion now’.
“But I have got regrets about not making the most of that opportunity. So, with this here, I am really proud to have this role with the ABs, but also I don’t want to linger on that too long. I want to look at how to make it a success and make the most of this opportunity for me individually and for the group as well because I know how much the New Zealand public want us to win the World Cup.”
Blair’s first memories of the All Blacks was as a young boy watching Scotland on TV on their 1990 tour of New Zealand. He went on to play against them on four occasions in his 85-cap career, in 2005, 2008, 2010, 2012, without ever beating them and he is now tasked with getting Rennie’s attack humming in time for the 2027 Rugby World Cup in Australia.
“You get an identity because of the type of player you have got,” he said when asked what style of attack he would seek to build in the months and years ahead. “New Zealand have historically produced big athletes, skilful athletes, fast athletes and that in itself creates this identity.
“It means that your game leans towards moving the ball well, trying to get one v ones, seeing flair in your game, and I see a lot of that in the personnel we have currently got at the moment. So I believe that identity of moving the ball, playing quick rugby, challenging defences is going to be really important for us and we have got the athletes to do that.
“The game has changed a bit, so you need to balance your game a little bit more. But if you have got a positive mindset as to why you kick the ball for example, you are kicking the ball to get better ball back or you are kicking the ball for field position to give yourself set-pieces in the opposition 30 metres, if you package it up in the right way we want to play a really positive brand of rugby, so I believe we can maintain that identity we have had historically.
“Ultimately, our job is to win, but the second part is how do you win, or what gives you the best opportunity of winning and I believe that fast style of rugby suits our players and gives us the best opportunity to win. But as I said, the balance is the crucial bit because it’s international rugby, you have got great defences out there, you can’t just run everything, you can’t always play wide-wide, you have to balance your game up as well.
“The first bit you want is you want them [the fans to be proud of the performance you are putting in on the pitch, proud of the effort and you want to give the crowd something to cheer about. That’s the first thing, the style part of it comes into it a little bit after that. You want supporters to be saying what a great brand of rugby we are playing, what skill we are showing but we also want them to say about how physical we are, you are representing the jersey, you’re representing the country and being physical is a key element to that.”
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