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Tana Umaga confirms an approach by NZR about possible All Blacks role
By Henry Lee at Eden Park, Auckland
Moana Pasifika head coach and former All Black Tana Umaga has confirmed to reporters in Auckland that he has been approached by New Zealand Rugby about a possible role under new head coach Dave Rennie.
Umaga was asked post-match after their 43-7 defeat against the Blues at Eden Park in Auckland, in a game in which his side didn’t score a point in the second half.
Rumours and reports had been circulating about the future of Moana Pasifika’s head coach, where a possible role within the All Blacks coaching staff was tabled as a possibility.
Sport Nation’s Alex Chapman and 1News’ Scotty Stevenson first reported that Umaga was in talks with the new All Blacks head coach, but nothing was confirmed by either party about what role, or if these talks had taken place.
Responding to the reports on Sunday evening, Umaga confirmed that he has been approached by the national union.
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”Yeah,” Umaga replied.
“I’ll figure those (conversations) out after today.”
The former All Black told The Breakdown that he’s had some discussions with Rennie during the past couple of days, but Umaga doesn’t give too much more away.
“I’ve been approached,” he said on The Breakdown.
“I’ve had a couple of chats to Dave Rennie in the last couple of days. We’re just going through that process at the moment and we’ll see where that goes.
“I’ve got a job to do here at the moment. That’s great, to have that opportunity. Whether it comes to anything, that’s work that’s got to be done.
The 52-year-old first responded to the reports during the week, when he called it just “speculation”.
“I don’t really deal in speculation. I’m really honoured and privileged to be involved in the conversation. But it’s just that. I suppose it was my turn this week. I saw there’s a lot of names involved in who Rens is looking for,” Umaga told reporters in Auckland.
“My family are the ones that are letting me know what’s happening, and I’m getting a lot of these texts, so I had to turn my phone off.”
Umaga didn’t exactly rule himself out, saying that if it happens, it will happen.
“There was a bit of interest in terms of having a chat with him [Rennie] from my agent to see if anything comes up, and said ‘you wouldn’t turn that down, would you?’ So we’re just waiting for those things to happen; if it happens, it happens.”
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