'Strong opinions': Dave Rennie appoints Sir Graham Henry as All Blacks selector

I think this could be a master stroke appointment. There’s so much rugby IQ & EQ in that appointment that will help Rennie navigate the tough decisions.

The more I look at these appointments, the more I expect Codie Taylor to be appointed AB captain, with Ardie replacing him when he leaves the field.

I think you will see a more physical performance from the AB’s in the forwards, which could quickly put them on track.

As Australia found and NZ will find out, Dave Rennie is just a bit blancmange.

He doesn’t have the personality to drive excellence and ruthlessness the All Blacks need and have relied on in the past.

I expect them to get mauled in South Africa, not knowing where to turn. Rassie is a hippo in coaching ranks. Cuddly looking but viscous and brutal when it needs to be.

Interesting. We already knew that Graham Henry appreciated Dave Rennie, and apparently the feeling is mutual. Despite his age, Graham Henry’s eye for the game is still very valuable. They’ve already discussed around 60 players.

You can feel that Rennie has put a lot of processes and structure in place. Everything is carefully planned. It’s professional — nothing is done randomly with him. It’s a bit different from what we had with Razor, the motivation-style coach. Lol.

Now we’re waiting to see the real thing. The first squad selection. There will inevitably be some surprises — some expected players might miss out, while others we didn’t expect could make it. I can’t wait!

Interesting, I didn’t see this coming. The All Blacks back room is starting to have a real “Back to the future” look about it. Will be interesting to see how it goes.

But on the face of it Rennie has little time to figure things out for himself so this does seem very mature

Wayne Barnes eventually admitted that he got it wrong AB's v France RWC 2007 SF…the call went out to sack Graham Henry for Robbie Deans…

Fast forward to RWC 2011…when Carter, Slade and Cruden all fell over, he calls a Waiuku resident nick named Beaver and the town was renamed Beaverville for a few days following the AB’s win..thank you referee Craig Joubert…

So yeah, we might need some more of the same luck and pearls of wisdom when it really matters going forward to 2027…

It's going to be interesting watching NZ assemble going forward. I think things are moving well for them now. But…… if things happen to go south, for what ever reason, I don't think NZ will ever again be as strong as they once were like between 2011 and 2015. The rest of the world has caught up and everyone plays as good as each other now. We will just have to wait and see.

The All Blacks are in good hands.

Great choice to have a proven winner on the selection team.

Rennie is showing a lot of maturity and wisdom in this appointment. NOTE: Henry is “a” selector, not THE selector. Henry learned a lot of things the hard way and that experience will help this new coaching group. Also he has good history as a part of a successful AB era so his perspective will instantly have credibility. That Rennie is not threatened to bring in a strong former coach says a lot about his lack of ego and team-first focus. Well done Dave!

Very curious now to see how different the squad will be compared to last year.