Dave Rennie (born 22 November 1963) is a New Zealand and

Cook Islands The Cook Islands is an island country in Polynesia, part of Oceania in the South Pacific Ocean. It consists of 15 islands whose total land area is approximately . The Cook Islands' Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ) covers of ocean. Avarua is its ...

professional

rugby union Rugby union football, commonly known simply as rugby union in English-speaking countries and rugby 15/XV in non-English-speaking world, Anglophone Europe, or often just rugby, is a Contact sport#Terminology, close-contact team sport that orig ...

coach and former player. He will take over the Kobe Steelers as head coach for the 2023–24 season. He previously was the head coach of the

Australia national rugby union team The Australia men's national rugby union team, nicknamed the Wallabies, is the representative men's national team in the sport of rugby union for Australia. The Wallabies first played at Sydney in 1899, winning their first Test match (rugby u ...

from 2020 to 2023, having previously coached New Zealand sides the Chiefs, , , the New Zealand U20, as well as in Scotland, with

Glasgow Warriors The Glasgow Warriors are a professional rugby union side from Scotland. The team plays in the United Rugby Championship league and in the European Professional Club Rugby tournaments. In the 2014–15 season they won the Pro12 title and beca ...

from 2017 to 2020. Rennie's playing position was

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. In November 2019 he was named the head coach of the Australian national team until being sacked in January 2023.

Rugby union playing career

Amateur and provincial

Rennie played with Upper Hutt RFC in Wellington, New Zealand. He finished playing early at 27 due to a recurring shoulder injury. Rennie played with the Wellington Lions. He won the NPC title with the Lions in 1986. Later as head coach he guided the team to their next NPC title 14 years later in 2000.

International

Rennie's mother was from

Rarotonga Rarotonga is the largest and most populous of the Cook Islands. The island is volcanic, with an area of , and is home to almost 75% of the country's population, with 10,898 of a total population of 15,040. The Parliament of the Cook Islands, Coo ...

in the

, and thus Rennie was eligible for the Cook Islands national rugby union team. He played for the Cook Islands national rugby union team for one game in 1990, but it was a non-capped match.

Rugby union coaching career

Rennie has been described as "hard-nosed, doesn't tolerate fools, is astute and has a deep rugby intelligence."

Early coaching career

After playing for the amateur side Rennie then coached Upper Hutt RFC.

Wellington Lions

He became the assistant coach of the Wellington Lions in 1999 before becoming head coach in 2000. In his first year as the head coach, he led the Wellington Lions to their first NPC title since 1986. He stayed with the Lions until 2002.

Hurricanes

Rennie became first the Hurricanes Under 23 head coach and then the assistant coach of the Hurricanes. Rennie also coached at the New Zealand international academy.

Manawatu

Originally a short-term contract, Rennie was the coach of the Turbos in the

ITM Cup ITM may stand for: Education * ITM Law School, one of the professional graduate schools of ITM University * ITM-IFM, Mumbai, India * Institut Teknologi Mara, a public university in Shah Alam, Selangor, Malaysia * Institute for Information, Tel ...

from 2005 to 2011. Under Rennie the Turbos were Championship Runner-up in the 2011 ITM Cup.

New Zealand U20

Rennie was coach of the New Zealand national under-20 rugby union team and the team won three consecutive World titles from 2008 to 2010.

Chiefs

He joined the Chiefs for the 2012 season and led them to their first ever

Super Rugby Super Rugby is a men's professional rugby union club competition involving teams from Australia, Fiji, New Zealand, and the Pacific Islands. It has previously included teams from Argentina, Japan, and South Africa. Super Rugby started as the S ...

title. In doing so Rennie became the first first-year

coach to win a Super Rugby title The day of the final itself proved highly eventful. As Rennie guided the Chiefs to a 37–6 win over the

Sharks Sharks are a group of elasmobranch cartilaginous fish characterized by a ribless endoskeleton, dermal denticles, five to seven gill slits on each side, and pectoral fins that are not fused to the head. Modern sharks are classified within the ...

, his house was robbed and valuables were stolen. A similar opportunist theft had occurred to Chiefs player

Sonny Bill Williams Sonny William Williams (born 3 August 1985) is a New Zealand heavyweight boxer, and a former professional rugby league and rugby union player. He is only the second person to represent New Zealand in rugby union after first playing for the cou ...

several weeks earlier. He coached the Chiefs to their second straight Super Rugby title in the 2013 season, beating the

Brumbies The ACT Brumbies (known from 2005 to 2022 as simply the Brumbies) is an Australian professional rugby union team based in Canberra, Australian Capital Territory (ACT), The team competes in Super Rugby and named for the feral horses which inh ...

. Rennie's "rookie" streak was only superseded by Scott Robertson in 2019, who won six successive titles in his first three seasons as head coach of the

Crusaders The Crusades were a series of religious wars initiated, supported, and at times directed by the Papacy during the Middle Ages. The most prominent of these were the campaigns to the Holy Land aimed at reclaiming Jerusalem and its surrounding ...

from 2017, winning in his rookie year, then again in 2018 - 2022. Rennie's coaching record at the Chiefs was: * 2012: 16 matches in round robin for 12 wins, 4 losses and points scored were 444 for & 358 against. The Chiefs won the semi-final versus the

20–17 and the final against the

37–6. * 2013: 16–12–0–4, points 458–364. Wins in semi final versus the

20–19 and final against the

27–22. * 2014: 16–8–2–6, points 384–378. Placed 2nd in New Zealand conference and 5th overall. Lost quarter final 30–32 versus the

Canberra Canberra ( ; ) is the capital city of Australia. Founded following the Federation of Australia, federation of the colonies of Australia as the seat of government for the new nation, it is Australia's list of cities in Australia, largest in ...

. * 2015: 16–10–0–6, points 372–299. Placed 5th. Lost quarter final against the Highlanders. * 2016: 15–11–0–4, points 491–341. Placed 6th. Won quarter final 60–21 versus the

Stormers The Stormers (known for sponsorship reasons as the DHL Stormers) and the academic team DHL Stormers is a South African professional rugby union team based in Cape Town in the Western Cape that competes in the United Rugby Championship, a tra ...

but lost the semifinal against the

Hurricanes A tropical cyclone is a rapidly rotating storm system with a low-pressure area, a closed low-level atmospheric circulation, strong winds, and a spiral arrangement of thunderstorms that produce heavy rain and squalls. Depending on its locat ...

9–25. * 2017: 15–12–1–2, points 433–293. Placed 5th. Won quarter final versus the

17–11 but lost the semi-final 13–27 against the

Glasgow Warriors

On 19 August 2016,

announced that Rennie would replace Gregor Townsend as head coach for the 2017–18 season. Under Townsend, Warriors were a top Pro12 side; they reached the play-offs in every year of his charge – except his last; where he guided the Warriors to their first European Champions Cup Quarter-Final. Townsend won the Pro12 title with Glasgow Warriors in 2015. In Rennie's first season, Glasgow Warriors made the

Pro14 The United Rugby Championship (URC) is an annual rugby union competition involving professional teams from Ireland, Italy, Scotland, South Africa, and Wales. For sponsorship reasons the league is known as the Vodacom United Rugby Championship in ...

semi-finals, but the side was beaten at Scotstoun Stadium by the

Scarlets The Scarlets () are one of the four professional Welsh rugby union teams and are based in Llanelli, Wales. Their home ground is the Parc y Scarlets stadium. They play in the United Rugby Championship and in European Professional Club Rugby c ...

. In the European Champions Cup they finished bottom of their pool. For the 2018–19 season, Glasgow Warriors reached the

final at

Celtic Park Celtic Park is a Soccer-specific stadium, football stadium and the home of Scottish Premiership team Celtic F.C., Celtic, in the Parkhead area of Glasgow, Scotland. With a capacity of 60,832, it is the largest List of football stadiums in Sco ...

in Glasgow. A large home-based Warriors support gave the Pro14 its biggest ever attendance for a final. Despite this

Leinster Leinster ( ; or ) is one of the four provinces of Ireland, in the southeast of Ireland. The modern province comprises the ancient Kingdoms of Meath, Leinster and Osraige, which existed during Gaelic Ireland. Following the 12th-century ...

capitalised on a Stuart Hogg error and ground out the match to win the title. In the European Champions Cup, Glasgow Warriors qualified out of the pool stages to meet

Saracens file:Erhard Reuwich Sarazenen 1486.png, upright 1.5, Late 15th-century History of Germany, German woodcut depicting Saracens ''Saracen'' ( ) was a term used both in Greek language, Greek and Latin writings between the 5th and 15th centuries to ...

in the quarter final. Having run Saracens very close at home; and matched them until the final quarter of the away pool match – Scottish hopes were raised for the quarter-final in London. However Saracens saved their best performance for that match and then went on to win the European title. After a coronavirus curtailed season in the 2019–20 season, Glasgow Warriors were in the 3rd place of their conference; which would have normally secured a place in the play-off finals to determine the Pro14 champion. Danny Wilson took over the head coach role on 1 June 2020. On leaving Rennie said: "It’s been good for me. I was keen to experience a different culture and a different type of footie. Rugby goes forever up here, the seasons roll into one, so you have to be very detailed around your planning. Around the international commitments you lose players for big chunks of time so you have to bring through young kids and manage a much bigger squad." Of

and Scotland he concluded: ""But it's the people I'll miss. A lot of it comes back to laughter. The Scottish are funny people and I haven't laughed as much in any environment as much as I have in my time here. I've travelled all over Scotland and had a decent look at various things. My grandfather was born in Stranraer so we spent a bit of time down there. We went up to Skye and went to Oban and went to this seafood restaurant right on the water and it was as good as any seafood I've ever tasted. I've loved the food, I've loved the people and I've loved our time here. It's been special, we'll miss it."

Wallabies

On 20 November 2019,

Rugby Australia Rugby Australia Ltd, previously named Australian Rugby Union Limited and Australian Rugby Football Union Limited, is an Australian company operating the premier rugby union competition in Australia and teams. It has its origins in 1949. It is a ...

announced that Rennie would replace

Michael Cheika Michael Cheika (born 4 March 1967) is an Australian professional rugby union and rugby league coach, and former rugby union player. He is head coach of Leicester Tigers in England's Premiership Rugby. Cheika was the coach of the Australia r ...

as head coach of the Wallabies. On 12 November 2022, Under pressure coach Dave Rennie defended making mass changes to his team after the Wallabies were stunned in a historic first loss (28-27) to Italy in Florence. On 16 January 2023, Rugby Australia announced that Rennie would be replaced by Eddie Jones.

Kobe Steelers

It was announced that Rennie would take over the Kobe Steelers in Japan for the season 2023-24. With him as assistant will be Mike Blair, previously a head coach of

Edinburgh Rugby Edinburgh Rugby (formerly Edinburgh Reivers, Edinburgh Gunners) is one of the two professional rugby union teams from Scotland. The club competes in the United Rugby Championship, along with the Glasgow Warriors, its oldest rival. Edinburgh play ...

and who was an assistant coach under Rennie at

Honours

* The Rugby Championship ** Runner-up:

2021 Like the year 2020, 2021 was also heavily defined by the COVID-19 pandemic, due to the emergence of multiple Variants of SARS-CoV-2, COVID-19 variants. The major global rollout of COVID-19 vaccines, which began at the end of 2020, continued ...

* Nelson Mandela Challenge Plate ** Winner: 2021, 2022 * Puma Trophy ** Winner: 2020, 2021, 2022 * Trophée des Bicentenaires ** Winner: 2021 * Hopetoun Cup ** Winner: 2022 * James Bevan Trophy ** Winner: 2022

Outside rugby

Rennie was a school teacher in Upper Hutt. He taught to 12 and 13 year olds: 'intermediate', between primary and secondary education. In comparing his former job of teaching with coaching rugby union, Rennie said: "Teaching, coaching, it's the same thing. The kids are just a bit bigger." While coaching Upper Hutt RFC at amateur level, Rennie owned and ran a pub called the Lonely Goat Herd in Upper Hutt, Wellington. Rennie plays guitar and also enjoys landscape gardening.

References

External links

Dave Rennie ProfileInternational Rugby Academy Profile
{{DEFAULTSORT:Rennie, Dave 1963 births New Zealand rugby union players New Zealand rugby union coaches New Zealand sportspeople of Cook Island descent Wellington rugby union players Sportspeople from Upper Hutt Living people People educated at Heretaunga College Cook Islands international rugby union players Cook Island rugby union players Glasgow Warriors coaches Rugby union centres Rugby union wings Expatriate rugby union coaches