Aaron Smith gives 'bite the mouthguard' description of Dave Rennie's coaching

Aaron Smith is now 15 years removed from his time under New Zealand’s new head coach Dave Rennie at Manawatu, and even further removed from his 2008 U20 experience under the coach, but the impression Rennie left remains vivid.

The 37-year-old, who has played under ex-All Blacks coaches Steve Hansen and Ian Foster at Toyota Verblitz for the past three seasons, has squared off with Rennie’s Kobelco Kobe Steelers throughout his time in Japan Rugby League One, falling short against the eventual champions twice in the recent season.

Recognised as one of the game’s all-time great halfbacks, Smith played the last of his 125 All Blacks caps in the 2023 Rugby World Cup final, and is excited by what the future holds for his national team with Rennie now at the helm.

“With Rens, it’s a really attacking mindset style of footy. He promotes players to express themselves, see space and push the boundaries; wherever you are, you can attack if the option’s on, but don’t half-pie it. That was always one thing I loved about him: if you’re going to go, go. Really commit,” Smith explained in an interview on Sport Nation.

“He’s a stern coach, he’s a great motivator. He had a way of talking to each player on a level that I found unique. He’ll give you a stern word, but then he was pretty good at giving you a rub on the back. He just makes you feel really good about your game, he’s really clear with feedback — I didn’t notice that until I was a bit older, how clear where I stood in the team was because he was just so open and transparent about my game and where I was at.

“As a player, that’s always good, to have no fuzzies, just straight and direct around what he likes and what he doesn’t like. It was easy to tweak.”

In his three seasons away from the international game, Smith has seen it evolve from afar, while feeling those trends trickle down into club rugby. Playing in Japan’s JRLO, a competition he says reminds him of the Super 14 era of Super Rugby due to its diversity of players and teams, Smith has now been competing for and against Rennie for nearly 20 years, seeing the coach’s style stand the test of time.

A New Zealand U20 campaign that saw the Kiwis concede just one try in five games en route to a world title began the pair’s relationship, which extended to Manawatu before Smith joined the Highlanders and Rennie was elevated to the Chiefs’ head coach role.

The Hamilton-based club went on to win two consecutive titles following Rennie’s arrival, with three further quarter-final exits and a semi-final loss before he left for Glasgow in 2017.

Smith says his time playing against Rennie left him with a clear idea of his coaching DNA.

“The way rugby is now, it’s such a defensive, positional game. It’s really tactical. I remember my early days in rugby, we’d train 20 per cent D and the rest was attack, but now it’s almost the other way around, including kick strategy. It’s just gone so far that way because defences are so hard to break down now.

“I was on the end of two pretty decent beatings from Kobe this year, and seeing that type of rugby, short passes, high-tempo, and keeping the ball alive, it’s just really hard to defend. Any momentum they got, they would go through the same area and just keep hammering at it. It’s really hard to stop.

“I think he’s going to really promote players to keep up, and wherever the space is, just keep smashing into it.

“One of Rens’ big things, that doesn’t get talked about enough, is his mindset at ruck time. Anything near the ruck, it’s got to be hit, gone, or just hit it if you think you can hit it. I remember being out the back of some of those Chiefs rucks, and I wasn’t really near it, but I was close enough in their eyes and ‘bang!’. That was the one game I didn’t hang too close to the ruck, against the Chiefs, because you’d get a side-banger to the quad.

“But if you’re playing his teams, he’s going to have a real attacking mindset to find space, but if you want to put your head on the ball, you’ve got to bite the mouthguard.”