South African rugby supporters should not shrug off Dave Rennie becoming the All Blacks coach. They should study it because Rennie has spent most of his coaching career doing one thing very well — beating South African teams.
His track record of dismantling South African teams likely influenced his appointment as Scott Robertson’s successor.
Rennie coached New Zealand to three consecutive World Rugby U20 Championship titles between 2008 and 2010, an era when South Africa was producing elite junior teams of its own.
In the 2010 tournament, New Zealand played South Africa in the semifinal, and Rennie’s team won 36–7 before hammering Australia 62-17 in the final.
That tournament mattered because it introduced a theme that would follow Rennie throughout his coaching career: when his teams are organised, physical and confident, they are very comfortable against South African rugby.
Super Rugby titles
The real evidence came at the Chiefs. When Rennie took over in Hamilton in 2012 the franchise had never won a Super Rugby title. Within two seasons they had two.
Across his six seasons with the Chiefs (2012-2017), Rennie’s teams regularly faced South African opposition in Super Rugby’s conference structure and playoffs.
The results were damning for the South Africans: the Chiefs won 18, drew two, and lost just four in 24 matches.
In 2012 they beat the Sharks in Durban, the Cheetahs in Bloemfontein, and then crushed the Sharks 37-6 in Hamilton in the Super Rugby final.
Rennie’s axing as Wallabies coach, 12 months before the 2023 World Cup, was strange because of his record against the Springboks, the incumbent world champions ...
In 2013 they again dominated South African teams on the way to a second consecutive title. And when South African teams did threaten them, Rennie’s Chiefs usually responded brutally.
The Stormers know this well.
Rennie’s Chiefs crushed the Stormers 60-21 in a 2016 quarterfinal at Newlands. A year later, they beat the Stormers again at Newlands in the same playoff stage, this time 17-11.
Rennie’s trademark
That pattern of physically matching South African teams, absorbing pressure and exposing South African rush defensive systems became a trademark of Rennie-coached teams.
Then came the Wallabies. Rennie’s two-year tenure with the Wallabies is often reduced to win-loss percentages, but that tells only part of the story.
Against the Springboks of Rassie Erasmus and Jacques Nienaber, Rennie’s Wallabies won three of four Tests, though all four were played in Australia.
The Wallabies beat the world champion Springboks 28-26 and 30-17 in back-to-back matches in Queensland in 2021 and, a year later, beat the Boks 25-17 in Adelaide.
South Africa would finally get a win a week later in Sydney, with the 24-8 triumph memorable for Canan Moodie’s Test debut on the right-wing.
Rennie was coaching an Australian team without the depth or player base of South Africa or New Zealand, yet tactically his teams consistently unsettled the Springboks.
Defensive intelligence
Rennie’s teams play with physicality, a simplicity that is at the heart of the very best All Blacks historically, off-the-ball niggle, defensive intelligence, and an attack that stretches defences.
Erasmus knows how to beat New Zealand teams, having done so with the Stormers in Super Rugby and now with the Boks. However, he faces a counterpart who thrives on challenging South African teams and has achieved success in South Africa.
Rennie’s axing as Wallabies coach, 12 months before the 2023 World Cup, was strange because of his record against the Springboks, the incumbent world champions; a record win against the All Blacks in Perth; a draw against the All Blacks in New Zealand; a one-point defeat against France in Paris; and a 13-10 defeat to Ireland in Dublin, when Australia refused a penalty attempt to draw the game and instead went for the win.
South Africans often analyse New Zealand appointments through the lens of the All Blacks tradition, but this one should be viewed differently.
Some will think Rennie’s appointment is that of a caretaker until the completion of next year’s World Cup, but his mandate is that of an undertaker whose job is to bury the Springboks, if not in Rugby’s Greatest Rivalry Tests this year, then in the 2027 World Cup quarterfinal, when the two teams are expected to meet.
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