{"id":697789,"date":"2026-07-18T03:47:15","date_gmt":"2026-07-18T03:47:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/697789\/"},"modified":"2026-07-18T03:47:15","modified_gmt":"2026-07-18T03:47:15","slug":"matt-williams-dave-rennie-has-dropped-embarrassing-all-blacks-act","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/697789\/","title":{"rendered":"Matt Williams: Dave Rennie has dropped ’embarrassing’ All Blacks act"},"content":{"rendered":"

Ex-Scotland<\/a> head coach Matt Williams says that Dave Rennie is ridding the All Blacks of their \u201cridiculous\u201d facade of being \u201cnice guys\u201d and that the rest of the world should be scared.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

The team has not lost a match at the venue since 1994, winning 50 Tests<\/a> and drawing two after losing to France 32 years ago. Rennie will be eager to extend that record against Andy Farrell\u2019s 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<\/a>.<\/p>\n

This after inspiring a clear shift in the team\u2019s mentality, with the former Leinster coach stating that Rennie has ditched the mantra of being nice guys making better All Blacks.<\/p>\n

Matt Williams praises Dave Rennie for ditching All Blacks facade<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s a definite change in the attitude of the coaches. There\u2019s not a lot of the crap, and I mean the word crap really seriously, that we were sold by New Zealanders \u2013 all this thing about culture, we sweep the change rooms, and \u2018Gee, we\u2019re pleasant, lovely guys, and good men make good All Blacks<\/a>\u2018,\u201d Williams<\/a> told Off The Ball Sport.<\/p>\n

\u201cLike, God save me from all that crap, please. And these guys have come in, the coaches have come in and said, what I\u2019ve just said, \u2018That\u2019s crap\u2019.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe 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\u2019s arses again, and they have done exactly that.<\/p>\n

\u201cI 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\u2019s a bit of the old school. New Zealand were not pleasant guys to play against. They weren\u2019t like sweeping the changeroom floors.\u201d<\/p>\n

All Blacks team v Ireland: Five takeaways as Dave Rennie\u2019s selection \u2018brutality\u2019 puts stars on notice while Beauden Barrett\u2019s snub raises questions<\/a><\/p>\n

Embarrassing and ridiculous<\/p>\n

He slammed the picture painted by the All Blacks\u2019 PR machine as \u201cgarbage\u201d, adding again that Rennie and his assistants are ditching those values and that it should strike fear into the other nations.<\/p>\n

\u201cAll these ads where they just happened to turn up in a little New Zealand village with about three streets, and we\u2019re 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\u2019re 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,\u201d he continued.<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd what Dave Rennie and his assistants have come in and said is, \u2018Listen, we are behind\u2019. They haven\u2019t tried to hide things; they have said, \u2018We\u2019re behind. We\u2019re number two in the world rankings, but we\u2019re 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.\u201d<\/p>\n

Dave Rennie issues \u2018clear message\u2019 to Wallace Sititi after dropping All Blacks star for Ireland showdown<\/a><\/p>\n

New Zealand capitulated, and it cost Scott Robertson his career<\/p>\n

He adds that the mentality the team had played a role in Scott Robertson\u2019s sacking after the side \u2018gave up\u2019 in the defeat to the Springboks in Wellington last year.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

\u201cSo that last 20 minutes, in the second Test against South Africa last year in New Zealand, where they just capitulated \u2013 that really cost Scott Robertson,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think it cost him his coaching career, and the game was shocked because New Zealand capitulated. I\u2019ve never seen a New Zealand side do that. I\u2019ve never seen a New Zealand side capitulate. What does capitulate mean? Give up. And they did, for 20 minutes; it was something I\u2019ve never seen in my rugby life.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey\u2019re going to South Africa to play four Tests this year [editor\u2019s 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\u2019re bringing new guys in. We want this attitude. We don\u2019t 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.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat\u2019s what he\u2019s trying to bring back. Look, that\u2019s good for you. I think that\u2019s really good for New Zealand rugby, and I think that\u2019s 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.\u201d<\/p>\n

Springboks legend predicts Ireland will do what the Springboks \u2018can\u2019t\u2019 and end the All Blacks\u2019 32-year streak<\/a><\/p>\n

Eden Park prediction<\/p>\n

Turning his attention to this weekend\u2019s game at Eden Park, Williams only sees one winner.<\/p>\n

\u201cHow Ireland turn up, what they provide. I\u2019m going to be very fair to Ireland; I think they will lose this game. They are unbelievably fatigued,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is still a very good Ireland side, and what they\u2019ve been asked to do over the last 15 months is really unfair. But they\u2019re facing an incredible challenge on Saturday, and Andy Farrell has backed that up with that statement. It\u2019s gonna take a once-in-a-generation effort to win.\u201d<\/p>\n

READ MORE:\u00a0Bernard Jackman reveals how All Blacks got \u2018timing\u2019 of Dave Rennie appointment right compared to Wallabies approach<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Ex-Scotland head coach Matt Williams says that Dave Rennie is ridding the All Blacks of their \u201cridiculous\u201d facade…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":697790,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[35],"tags":[348,3482,2274,15733,134497,620,50,5903,101,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-697789","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-rugby","tag-home-page","tag-internationals","tag-ireland","tag-matt-williams","tag-nations-championship","tag-new-zealand","tag-news","tag-rugby","tag-sports","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/697789","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=697789"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/697789\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/697790"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=697789"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=697789"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=697789"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}