The Country 04/03/26: Elliott Smith talks to Jamie Mackay

Newstalk ZB’s lead rugby commentator and deputy sports news editor discusses Dave Rennie being named as the new All Blacks coach.

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Good Afternoon News, Ellen. Welcome to the country. Back in
Black by Akadaka. Look. I was going to kick off
the show with Christopher Luxe and Prime Minister Christopher Luckx
and caught up with them earlier this morning, but I
can't do that due to the breaking news here came
out just before midday that Dave Rennie is the new
All Blacks coach. I'm not sure how I feel about that,
being a Highlanders man down here in Indeed, and let's

(00:21):
get news talk, said be's magnificent leading rugby commentator Elliott
Smith and his take on it. Elliot, Were you surprised,
Good afternoon.

Speaker 2 (00:30):
Afternoon, Jamie. No, Ultimately I probably wasn't surprised. It felt
like in recent days, you know, reading the tea leaves,
listening to sources, talking to people, it felt like Rennie,
while being no means confirmed in the role, probably had
the inside running just on the basis of a few
things that I know, the All Blacks coaching panel we're
looking for, and you know, Jamie Joseph at the outset

(00:53):
when Scott Robinson was acted in January was probably the
front runner. But it felt like in the last couple
of weeks that Dave Rennie Stock affirmed, I know that
Steve Langcaster Dane Coles had gone up to Japan, observed
Kobe and Dave Rennie's working environment up there, spoken to
players and observed what it was like up there as well.

(01:13):
It was ultimately fifty to fifty race, though I think
Jamie and Dave Rennie's edged it out, and I think
it was two good candidates, and Dave Renie's perhaps record
around culture and setting culture and quickly is probably what
got him over the line in the end. You think
back to his Chiefs tenure where he won two Super
Rugby titles twenty twelve and twenty thirteen after taking charge

(01:33):
of the year. You know, in circumstances where he got
a lot of young blood into the team, a lot
of faces that you know, you weren't necessarily connecting with
the Chiefs previously. He managed to bring them in there.
And I think that's certainly what the All Blacks want,
because they've said a big target Jamie on winning the
World Cup next year was.

Speaker 1 (01:52):
Jamie Joseph too old school and hard assed, not woke enough.
And I'm not saying that Dave Rennie's woke, but you know,
what I mean, Elliott.

Speaker 2 (01:58):
Yeah, look, I think that is a tag that's been
applied to Jamie Joseph, that he's old school, he trains
the players hard. And look, we all know that the
modern players different to the players of you know, the past,
and what they expect and what they want out of
training and what their conditioned to. But there was certainly
a tag that had been applied to Jamie Joseph that
he was probably you know, old school and maybe trained

(02:22):
the players. You know, we've heard stories about the Highlanders
and how much they trained led out to the twenty
fifteen title that they won, and what he was able
to do there. You know, old school's not necessarily a
bad thing, but I think it had been a tag
probably applied to Jamie Joseph that might have been hard
to shake off. The All Blacks are such a big
beast now around, you know, their travel around the world

(02:43):
and player welfare and everything like that, that you know,
maybe those concerns were something that played into the Panels
thinking when they came to rubber stamping.

Speaker 1 (02:52):
Rennie, I got a text from one of my gossipy
friends who happened to be on the same flight back
as Dave Rennie from Tokyo on Monday evening. He says
he knew he was going to be the coach then, interestingly,
it's my text, we'll start the room of mill running here.
Interestingly he had Andrew Strawbridge with him. What did we
read into this? And I know it's early early days,

(03:12):
but who do you reckon? He might pick us as
running mates.

Speaker 2 (03:14):
I think that name there, Andrew Strawbridge will be right
in the reckoning. Highly respected work with him at the
Chiefs then was a left out of the All Blacks
coaching staff when Scott Robertson took over. Has had a
stint at England as well. A lot of respect for
Andrew Strawbridge and the skills work that he has done
with multiple teams through the years. I think that's something
that the All Blacks have been missing, is there's skills.

(03:36):
You know, the catch passes deserted them at times over
the last few years. So if they can get someone
like Andrew Strawbridge on board that I think that would
be a good thing. And I think ultimately it's going
to be people that Dave Renny's comfortable working with. It's
a head and run mission really through until next year's
World Cup. He's got seventeen matches on the cards this year,
thirteen of them test matches, and then another Rugby Championship

(03:58):
next year and maybe another warm up test ahead of
the World Cup. It's not long. He's going to pick
staff members that he's comfortable working with. Suspect that Neil
Barnes might be one that gets to tap on the
shoulder as well. Other members o this coaching staff that
he's worked with. Both of the chiefs maybe in Kobe
as well, would be likely to form the staff. So
you know, if you're an All Blacks incumbent assistant, because

(04:20):
remember they left those roles untouched when Scott Robertson was dumped.
I think it's gonna be a nervous time because I
suspect when he's going to lean towards the people he
knows rather than the people he does.

Speaker 1 (04:30):
Neil Neil Barnes is old school, hard ass.

Speaker 2 (04:32):
Maybe they need that good cop bad cop thing going on,
Jamie Hey.

Speaker 1 (04:36):
He is going to honor his commitments with the Kobe
Steelers until the conclusion of the Japan Rugby League One competition.
When is that?

Speaker 2 (04:45):
That is in May? I believe so it's not going
to leave him much run time getting through to the
end of the season, so in fact they are in
positions to be in the playoffs too, so it might
even be late May early June. You think that first
test of his tenure is going to be July the
fourth against France in christ Church, not a lot of
lead time to come back to New Zealand and start

(05:06):
thinking about various things. You'd have to think that the
next few months he's going to be juggling two jobs.
As much as he might say that he's fully focused
on Cobang closing out, then he's going to have to
be pouring over super rugby tape. You would have to
think talking to people on the ground here, getting a
sense of what this team needs to get up to speed,
because he's going to have to select a squad very
very quickly, so it doesn't leave him, as I say,

(05:30):
a lot of lead time over the next few months.
That would have been maybe one thing with Jamie Joseph
is that he would have been, in theory able to
leave the Highlanders pretty quickly. It wouldn't have been ideal
for the Highlanders to have their coach depart mid season,
but it would have been perhaps a bit cleaner from
an All Blacks perspective, but they've decided that ultimately that
risk of not having a great runway through to that

(05:50):
first Test is something they can live with.

Speaker 1 (05:53):
Wow, Dave, Rennie, then you All Blacks coach a l
at Just a final shot from me. I'm playing golf
this afternoon. He's been drawn on my four, as fate
would have it with Warren Alcock, and I think he's
done a wee bit of work with Jamie Joseph. Could
be an interesting afternoon, be.

Speaker 2 (06:08):
Very after a very interesting afternoon on the teas for you,
For you, Jamie.

Speaker 1 (06:11):
I'll give you a ring later on know on, good
on you. There we go. Elliott Smith from News Talks,
lead rugby commentator,