Ex-Scotland head coach Matt Williams says that Dave Rennie is ridding the All Blacks of their “ridiculous” facade of being “nice guys” and that the rest of the world should be scared.
Rennie took over as head coach from Scott Robertson earlier this year and has overseen back-to-back victories in his first games in charge and will make his Eden Park debut as the All Blacks boss this weekend against Ireland.
The team has not lost a match at the venue since 1994, winning 50 Tests and drawing two after losing to France 32 years ago. Rennie will be eager to extend that record against Andy Farrell’s men, and Williams predicts that they will do so when the two collide in the final round of the first leg of the Nations Championship.
This after inspiring a clear shift in the team’s mentality, with the former Leinster coach stating that Rennie has ditched the mantra of being nice guys making better All Blacks.
Matt Williams praises Dave Rennie for ditching All Blacks facade
The ex-coach, now outspoken pundit, also believes that the coaches have made it clear that they are well behind the Springboks and feels that Rennie is taking the team back to a more old-school mindset.
“There’s a definite change in the attitude of the coaches. There’s not a lot of the crap, and I mean the word crap really seriously, that we were sold by New Zealanders – all this thing about culture, we sweep the change rooms, and ‘Gee, we’re pleasant, lovely guys, and good men make good All Blacks‘,” Williams told Off The Ball Sport.
“Like, God save me from all that crap, please. And these guys have come in, the coaches have come in and said, what I’ve just said, ‘That’s crap’.
“We need to technically be better, far better than we are because South Africa are technically far better than us. And we need to stop being nice guys and start kicking people’s arses again, and they have done exactly that.
“I think there is a really positive attitude in New Zealand, in the New Zealand national team, that should put fear into the rest of us because it’s a bit of the old school. New Zealand were not pleasant guys to play against. They weren’t like sweeping the changeroom floors.”
Embarrassing and ridiculous
He slammed the picture painted by the All Blacks’ PR machine as “garbage”, adding again that Rennie and his assistants are ditching those values and that it should strike fear into the other nations.
“All these ads where they just happened to turn up in a little New Zealand village with about three streets, and we’re going to knock on a door in our All Black tracks and have breakfast with the family. Nice, good people make even better All Blacks, and everyone was buying it. And you’re kind of like, this is ridiculous, ridiculous, to be quite honest; it was embarrassing as a rugby player and a rugby coach to listen to this garbage,” he continued.
“And what Dave Rennie and his assistants have come in and said is, ‘Listen, we are behind’. They haven’t tried to hide things; they have said, ‘We’re behind. We’re number two in the world rankings, but we’re a long way behind South Africa, and we have to do something about that. We have to be technically better, we have to be fitter, and we have to be far harder than we have been, mentally.”
New Zealand capitulated, and it cost Scott Robertson his career
He adds that the mentality the team had played a role in Scott Robertson’s sacking after the side ‘gave up’ in the defeat to the Springboks in Wellington last year.
The 43-10 defeat is the biggest loss the All Blacks have ever suffered, and while Robertson remained in the role through to the end of 2025, he was fired ahead of the 2026 international season.
“So that last 20 minutes, in the second Test against South Africa last year in New Zealand, where they just capitulated – that really cost Scott Robertson,” he said.
“I think it cost him his coaching career, and the game was shocked because New Zealand capitulated. I’ve never seen a New Zealand side do that. I’ve never seen a New Zealand side capitulate. What does capitulate mean? Give up. And they did, for 20 minutes; it was something I’ve never seen in my rugby life.
“They’re going to South Africa to play four Tests this year [editor’s note: the fourth Test is in Baltimore, USA], and unless Dave Rennie did something pretty hard-nosed, they were going to get walloped in South Africa, and the hard-nosed is we’re bringing new guys in. We want this attitude. We don’t want to be nice guys anymore because nice guys come last. We want to be hard-nosed, old school All Blacks that people were absolutely scared of before they went onto a pitch.
“That’s what he’s trying to bring back. Look, that’s good for you. I think that’s really good for New Zealand rugby, and I think that’s what makes this Test on Saturday at Eden Park against Ireland super interesting. I think this is the most interesting game of the whole tournament so far.”
Eden Park prediction
Turning his attention to this weekend’s game at Eden Park, Williams only sees one winner.
“How Ireland turn up, what they provide. I’m going to be very fair to Ireland; I think they will lose this game. They are unbelievably fatigued,” he said.
“This is still a very good Ireland side, and what they’ve been asked to do over the last 15 months is really unfair. But they’re facing an incredible challenge on Saturday, and Andy Farrell has backed that up with that statement. It’s gonna take a once-in-a-generation effort to win.”