Jason Ryan drops early clue on Dave Rennie’s All Blacks vision

All Blacks assistant coach Jason Ryan has given fans and pundits a small preview of the discussions that he has had with new head coach Dave Rennie, just days after the wider coaching group was confirmed.

Ryan is rumoured to have a slightly re-defined role under Dave Rennie compared to the past regime, where his portfolio is now based around looking after mainly the scrum and maul.

The current assistant coach, who has now been part of the All Blacks setup under three different head coaches, will join senior assistant Neil Barnes in taking control of the team’s forward pack.

Speaking on Newstalk ZB’s Weekend Sport radio show, the All Blacks assistant explained how his discussions with Rennie have already indicated that there will be some areas to improve on immediately.

“I know that Renz [Rennie] is pretty clear on taking a few things out of our game potentially, and that’ll make us a little bit clearer,” Ryan told Jason Pine on Newstalk ZB.

“Excited about where we can get to because as I said before, all of the pack are at a good age, and we’ve got some powerful athletes that have got good footwork on the line, but getting the core roles and fundamentals right is going to be important.

“That’s what Rennie’s driven around being brilliant at basics, so I think that’s going to be exciting as well.”

Ryan talks about his understanding of the forward pack and how he knows that at times, he and the other members of the forward pack group didn’t get things right.

“There’s been a lot of movement in the last four years, but when I look at the pack I think it’s time for us to have some real progress and I think we will.

“I think that we’re the forward pack are all in a very good age, they’ve all experienced a little bit of pain together. We’ve learned some big lessons, and I know that we’ll be better for that, and I know I will be.

“We got a couple of things not quite right, and we learned the hard way about that, and that’s life. But what I do know about any All Black team that’s had the ultimate success is there’s always been a little bit of pain along the way.

“There still will be, I’ve got no doubt about that, but we’ll stick together and work on what we need to.”

With Rennie and new attack coach Mike Blair up in Japan with the Kobe Steelers, and Tana Umaga coaching at Moana Pasifika, the brunt of the on-ground work will be left with Ryan and Barnes.

But Ryan assures fans and pundits that the conversations and meetings between the group are ongoing, and that visits to the Super Rugby Pacific franchises with Rennie and the coaching staff are on the horizon.

“I’ve just had a good catch up with Tana in Auckland today, and I’ve had chats with Barnsey and touched base with Renz and Mike Blair, and Phil Healey the head of performance.

“So there’s a whole lot of sort of micro conversations going on between us individually at the moment, but we’re going to get together next week as a whole over a call and Rennie is going to run that and show what he presented in his interview for the game model.

“There’ll be an opportunity for us as assistant coaches to put some stuff forward to him. Barnes and I will get over to Japan after the Super Round, and we’ll start our process of going around super clubs.

“So we’ll get to know where we’re at pretty well and pretty soon, which we have to, but Rennie has got it all laid out with all his visits.

“He’s made contact with all the head coaches. So things are well and truly underway.”