Old hands vs new philosophers: The Super Rugby semifinals coaching battles
It’s only fair that most of the focus ahead of this weekend’s Super Rugby finals will be on the players but, as Scotty Stevenson writes, both crucial clashes will also be defined by a battle between the old and new schools of professional coaches.
Dave Rennie has never been one to mince his words. To be perfectly honest, he doesn’t usually dispense enough of them to make mince in the first place. When he does talk, he most often takes the opportunity to ask a question, and when I say ask a question I mean demand an answer. He’s what you might call the strong silent type, though give him a win and a beer and a guitar and he can carry a fine tune. His go-to conversational play is to make a statement and finish with an elongated “sooooo….” Leaving you to draw your own conclusions, which of course are the same conclusions Dave Rennie has already drawn, he’d just rather you said it, not him.
Scott Robertson is always talking because in his world there is always something that needs articulating. Either that or he uses conversation as a way to discharge enough of his reservoir of energy to ensure he doesn’t explode. Restless and relentlessly upbeat, the man known as Razor is just as happy fist-bumping his frontrowers as he is forensically dissecting a defensive screen. When he sends text messages they are punctuated with emoji. If there was an emoji for Razor it would be a guy on a surfboard holding a lightning bolt. He needs constant mental stimulation, and once told a player who was presenting to the team that he was boring everyone. Nothing like a bit of honesty, then.
There are similarities between the two coaches: they both command loyalty, they both have sensational playing rosters, they both have tasted provincial championship success – Rennie with Wellington and the Robertson with Canterbury – and they both have coached the New Zealand under-20 team to world titles. Yet, for all that, they are very different men who bring very different styles to their craft. If the pair were muppets, Rennie would be Rowlf the Dog and Robertson would be the entire Electric Mayhem ensemble.
Chris Boyd is a lot like Dave Rennie, though I cannot tell you how well he sings. Like Rennie he is from the old school, first coaching club rugby in Wellington in the 1980s and then taking the reins at the senior provincial level after Rennie’s tenure there came to an end in 2002. Boyd is a man who dresses a complicated mind in a cloak of simplicity and there is an artful direction in the way he coaches; he seems to be simultaneously adjusting the details while standing back and surveying the bigger picture. He coaches the way Dali must have painted Gala Contemplating the Mediterranean Sea, adding each brush stroke and then retreating to witness the hidden portrait of Lincoln come to fruition.
He is a traditional man who, with his assistants John Plumtree, Richard Watt and Dan Cron, has instilled in the Hurricanes a respect for graft and the hard yards. It’s worked. Under Boyd the Canes have twice been to the Super Rugby final and last year claimed a maiden championship. He has been able to alloy to the Hurricanes willingness to attack an awareness of how those opportunities are created.
In Johannesburg, Johan Ackermann has done the reverse. He has been able to unlock a creative instinct that was once buried in the belief that rugby was only about the hard yards and set piece dominance. Ackermann, like Robertson, has an affinity with his charges that comes predominantly from the fact he was once one of them – a Super Rugby player with the very team he now coaches. Like Robertson he has brought with him a different kind of energy, and a new level of success.
His players call him ‘Akkies’ and obviously love him. He told them after the loss to the Jaguares this year that he would grow a beard and only shave it off when they lost again. Presumably he will also shave it off if the Lions win the Super Rugby title because he leaves after this season to coach at English Premiership club Gloucester. He currently resembles a Nordic lumberjack yet his players say his formidable physique belies his caring and thoughtful approach.
For the Hurricanes, there is an inherent trust in Chris Boyd and his methods. He is a wise Yoda who has stood the test of time. For the Lions there is a desire to send off their big brother figure with a first-ever franchise title. Those motivations come with different emotional impacts.
And that is precisely why these semifinals have that added sense of intrigue. Each will pit a title-winning veteran coach against a new wave philosopher. The results could tell us whether the new age has dawned, or whether old school experience still counts in the coaching box.
Comments on RugbyPass
NZ 😭😭😭is certainly rivaling England for best whingers cup!😭😭😭 !!!
22 Go to commentsYup. New Zealand won 3 out of 10 world cups played. SA 4 out of 8 attempts 30 Vs 50 per cent.🤔🤔
22 Go to commentsShould've done this years ago. Change Saturday kick off times to around 11am. Up and off and back home before 3pm, limit travel time too. Allows players to actually do something else with their Saturday that's family oriented or being rugby fans they could ‘watch’ pro rugby. Increases crowds etc. How can anyone that enjoys grassroots and pro rugby have to choose between the two on Saturdays?
9 Go to commentsI bet he inspired those supporters just as much.
1 Go to commentsBen Smith Springboks living rent free in his head 😊😂
67 Go to commentsGood to hear he would like to play the game at the highest level, I hadn’t been to sure how much of a motivator that was before now. Sadly he’s probably chosen the rugby club to go to. Try not to worry about all the input about how you should play rugby Joey and just try to emulate what you do on the league field and have fun. You’ll limit your game too much (well not really because he’s a standard athlete like SBW and he’ll still have enough) if you’re trying to make sure you can recycle the ball back etc. On the other hard, you can totally just try and recycle by looking to offload any and everywhere if you’re going to ground 😋
1 Go to commentsThis just proves that theres always a stat and a metric to use to justify your abilities and your success. Ben did it last week by creating an imaginary competition and now you did the same to counter his argument and espouse a new yardstick for success. Why not just use the current one and lets say the Boks have won 4 world cups making them the most successful world cup team. Outside of the world cup the All Blacks are the most successful team winning countless rugby championships and dominating the rankings with high win percentages. Over the last 4 years statistically the Irish are the best having the highest win rate and also having positive records against every tier 1 side. The most successful Northern team in the game has been England with a world cup title and the most six nations titles in history. The AB’s are the most dominant team in history with the highest win rate and 3 world cups. Lets not try to reinvent the wheel. Just be honest about the actual stats and what each team has been good at doing and that will be enough to define their level of success.
22 Go to commentsHow is 7’s played there? I’m surprised 10 or 11 man rugby hasn’t taken off. 7 just doesn’t fit the 15s dynamics (rules n field etc) but these other versions do.
9 Go to commentsPick Swinton at your peril A liability just like JWH from the Roosters Skelton ??? went missing at RWC
14 Go to commentsLike tennis, who have a ranking system, and I believe rugby too, just measure over each period preceding a world cup event who was the longest number one and that would be it. In tennis the number one player frequently is not the grand slam winner. I love and adore the All Blacks since the days of Ian Kirkpatrick when I was a kid in SA. And still do because they are the masters of running rugby and are gentleman on and off the field - in general. And in my opinion they have been the majority of the time the best rugby team in the world.
22 Go to commentsHaving overseas possessions in 2024 is absurd. These Frenchies should have to give the New Caledonians their freedom.
21 Go to commentsBell injured his foot didn’t he? Bring Tupou in he’ll deliver when it counts. Agree mostly but I would switch in the Reds number 8 Harry Wilson for Swinton and move Rob Valentini to 6 instead. Wilson is a clever player who reads the play, you can’t outmuscle the AB’s and Springboks, if you have any chance it’s by playing clever. Same goes for Paisami, he’s a little guy who doesn’t really trouble the likes of De Allende and Jordie Barrett. I’d rather play Carter Gordon at 12 and put Michael Lynagh’s boy at 10. That way you get a BMT type goalkicker at 10 and a playmaker at 12. Anyways, just my two cents as a Bok supporter.
14 Go to commentsThanks Brett, love your articles which are alway pertinent. It’s a difficult topic trying to have a panel adjudicating consistently penalties for red card issues. Many of the mitigating reasons raised are judged subjectively, hence the different outcomes. How to take away subjective opinions?
9 Go to commentsYes Sir! Surprising, just like Fraser would also have escaped sanction if he was a few inches lower, even if it was by accident that he missed! Has there really been talk about those sanctions or is this just sensational journalism? I stopped reading, so might have missed any notations.
9 Go to commentsAI is only as good as the information put in, the nuances of the sport, what you see out the corner of the eye, how you sum up in a split second the situation, yes the AI is a tool but will not help win games, more likely contribute to a loss, Rugby Players are not robots, all AI can do if offer a solution not the solution. AI will effect many sports, help train better golfers etc.
45 Go to commentsIt couldn’t have been Ryan Crotty. He wasn’t selected in either World Cup side - they chose Money Bill instead. And Money Bill only cared about himself, and that manager he had, not the team.
28 Go to commentsYawn 🥱 nobody would give a hoot about this new trophy. End of the day we just have to beat Ireland and NZ this year then they can finally shut up 🤐
22 Go to commentsTalking bout Ryan Crotty? Heard Crotty say in a interview once that SBW doesen't care about the team . He went on to say that whenever they lost a big game, SBW would be happy as if nothing happened, according to him someone who cares would look down.. Personally I think Crotty is in the wrong, not for feeling gutted but for expecting others 2 be like him… I have been a bad loser forever as it matters so much to me but good on you SBW for being able to see the bigger picture….
28 Go to commentsThis sounds like a WWE idea so Americans can also get excited about rugby, RUGBY NEEDS A INTERNATIONAL CALENDER .. The rugby Championship and Six Nations can be held at same time, top 3 of six nations and top 3 of Rugby championship (6 nations should include Georgia AND another qualifying country while Fiji, Japan and Samoa/Tonga qualifier should make out 6 Southern teams).. Scrap June internationals and year end tours. Have a Elite top six Cup and the Bottom 6 in a secondary comp….
22 Go to commentsThe rugby championship would be even stronger with Fiji in it… I know it doesen’t fit the long term plans of NZ or Aus but you are robbing a whole nation of being able to see their best players play for Fiji…. Every second player in NZ and AUS teams has Fijian surnames… shame on you!!! World rugby won’t step in either as France and England has now also joined in…. I guess where money is involved it will always be the poor countries missing out….
90 Go to comments