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Jason Ryan explains Dave Rennie's 'unbelievable' early impact
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All Blacks assistant coach Jason Ryan has given glowing praise for Dave Rennie’s initial impact ahead of the first Nations Championship Test against France this Saturday.
Ryan will return to a city he knows like the back of his hand, as part of his third different coaching group in the All Blacks, having started under Ian Foster back in 2022.
The former Crusaders assistant has been a forwards coach in the All Blacks setup under Foster and previous head coach Scott Robertson, before joining Rennie’s group ahead of the 2026 international season.
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The new coaching group have now spent just under a week with their squad for the July Nations Championship window, and have settled in Christchurch ahead of an encounter with Fabien Galthié’s France this weekend.
When Ryan was asked to explain what impact the new All Blacks head coach has made, the 50-year-old didn’t mince his words.
“Unbelievable. Tremendously clear on what he wants. Pretty strong in his messaging around how that’s needed and what’s required, which is great, especially for a forwards coach,” Ryan told media in Christchurch on Monday.
“We’ve dug in really deep to the All Black legacy the last couple of days in our ‘non-finals camp’, which has been really authentic and unique to the All Blacks, understanding a little bit of who we want to be as a team.
“The boys have really owned that and Rens has led that really well.”
Ryan’s re-defined role of a predominantly scrum and lineout maul coach is as clear as it comes, with Rennie, Barnes, and Sir Graham Henry looking after the team selection process.
“Barnesy’s doing the lineout attack and defence and has a lot of the strategy side of it, with Mike [Blair]. So it leaves me with the scrummaging side of it, the maul attack and D.
“And we’re all doing a little bit of ball-carrying, breakdown and helping Tana [Umaga] with little D drills. We’re sort of across everything, and that’s how Rens likes it.”
Although the assistant coach has enjoyed a fresh start under Rennie, he admits the contract process with New Zealand Rugby in early 2026 was difficult, at times.
“I’d like to say personally I’ve just stayed pure to who I am, and I’ve been lucky enough to get an opportunity with Rens in this crew and really looking forward to it,” the assistant coach said.
“There’s no other team that I’d rather coach in the world than the All Blacks.”
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