Perspective with Heather du Plessis-Allan: Dave Rennie's got his work cut out for him

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 Jones. But if you look at his record with that squad, it’s not exactly inspiring. He had a 38 percent win rate, which makes Razor’s 74 percent win rate look positively outstanding.

But if you’re being generous, you’d have to say Rennie had the odds stacked against him with the Wallabies -COVID disruptions, too many tests against the All Blacks, injuries, player unavailability. He still managed to beat South Africa twice, which is no small feat.

 And neither of his successors - Eddie Jones nor Joe Schmidt - have done much better.

Rennie’s appointment also brings a couple of firsts. The headline one is that he’s the first All Blacks coach of Pasifika descent.

But the first I’m enjoying today is this: while it’s not unusual for ex-All Blacks coaches to take over the Wallabies, this is the first time the All Blacks have been taken over by a former Wallabies coach.

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