Larry Williams Drive

The man appointed today as the coach to take the All Blacks to next year's Rugby World Cup is Dave Rennie. And he's got his work cut out for him.  He can’t start fulltime with the All Blacks until June - he has to finish his contract in Japan first. That wraps up in May, which means there’s a very tight turnaround before the first test against the French in early July. Then he’s got the Italians, then the Irish, and then the South Africans. Baptism of fire, much? And in just over 18 months, he’ll be heading into the Rugby World Cup. Lifting that trophy is going to be a challenge but it’s not impossible. Rassie Erasmus famously took over in 2018 and won the Rugby World Cup with the Springboks the next year. And you could argue the Springboks back then were more of a hot mess than the All Blacks are now, ahead of Rennie taking over. It’s also worth remembering that coaching at international level isn’t new ground for Rennie. He was the Wallabies' coach before he was dumped for the disaster that was Eddie J