Dave Rennie on Rugby Australia, the body that sacked him as Wallabies coach in January 2023: “We didn’t necessarily share the same values.”
The All Blacks coach said it in an interview with the Sydney Morning Herald, published on Saturday 17 October. A gap between the Wallabies squad and the governing body, he said, was part of why he lost the job. It is the first time he has spoken at length about the sacking.
Later that day his side beat the Wallabies 43-21 at Accor Stadium. Asked about his exit after the match, Rennie went back to the line he used in Auckland: “It’s not about me. I love my time here.”
Was Rugby Australia right to swap Rennie for Eddie Jones in a World Cup year?
Did Rennie mean Hamish McLennan?
Rennie, 62, spoke at the All Blacks’ Double Bay hotel this week. He said he carries no extra motive into this Test and still counts many friends in Australian rugby.
Asked what the job taught him, he described a tight-knit squad and an administration with other priorities. He admitted that managing upwards, usually a strength, was much harder for him in Australia, and that it fed into how things ended.
He named nobody. He would not say whether he meant Hamish McLennan, the former Rugby Australia chairman. McLennan’s “Kumbaya” jibe, preferring tough World Cup winners to a group that holds hands and fails, was read as a shot at Rennie.
His one concrete example was mixed messaging. The chairman talked about Australia going it alone without New Zealand, while Rennie was publicly arguing the two unions needed each other.
Rennie would rest 12 starters in Florence again
McLennan was in the stand in Florence in 2022, and he was furious. Rennie had rested 12 starters, and Italy won 28-27.
Rennie says he would do it again. The tour grew from three Tests to five to make money. That, he argues, should have come with an understanding: his first-choice side could not play five weekends running.
How the Dave Rennie Wallabies era ended: a 6.30am video call
An independent review of the 5-9 season of 2022 found he still had the squad’s backing, the Herald reports. Rugby Australia had already lined up Eddie Jones.
Rennie heard at a 6.30am meeting, with then chief executive Andy Marinos on a video call from South Africa. Phil Waugh, then a Rugby Australia director and now its chief executive, also attended.
The 12 or 13 players Rennie would have taken to the 2023 World Cup
Rennie would not judge Jones’s time in charge. He did say Jones left out 12 or 13 players he would have picked for the 2023 World Cup. With a squad like his 2022 group, he believes, Australia had a real chance from its pool.
The Wallabies under Les Kiss have now lost both Bledisloe Tests this year, 50-19 at Eden Park and 43-21 in Sydney. They trailed 36-7 at half-time and scored the last 14 points. Declan Meredith still earned an 8 in the Wallabies ratings.
Rugby Australia’s case against Rennie was a 5-9 year
The board had a 5-9 year in front of it and a World Cup months away. It chose Jones, and Australia went out in the pool in France. Saturday’s 43-21 belongs to Kiss. He picked this side, three years after the boardroom row.
England next for the Wallabies, Scotland for Rennie
The Wallabies play England on 8 November in the Nations Championship. Rennie names his touring squad after the NPC final, and Scotland come first on 7 November.
Before any of that, Rennie said he would share a beer with the Wallabies in their change room on Saturday night.
With his 2022 squad intact, would Rennie’s Wallabies have made the 2023 World Cup quarter-finals?
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