Dave Rennie (born 22 November 1963) is a

New Zealand New Zealand ( mi, Aotearoa ) is an island country in the southwestern Pacific Ocean. It consists of two main landmasses—the North Island () and the South Island ()—and over 700 smaller islands. It is the sixth-largest island count ...

and

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professional

rugby union Rugby union, commonly known simply as rugby, is a close-contact team sport that originated at Rugby School in the first half of the 19th century. One of the two codes of rugby football, it is based on running with the ball in hand. In its m ...

coach and former player who is the head coach of the

Australia national rugby union team The Australia national rugby union team, nicknamed the Wallabies, is the representative national team in the sport of rugby union for the nation of Australia. The team first played at Sydney in 1899, winning their first test match against the ...

, having previously coached New Zealand sides the Chiefs, , , the New Zealand U20, as well as

Glasgow Warriors 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 became t ...

in Scotland. Rennie's playing position was

Centre Center or centre may refer to: Mathematics * Center (geometry), the middle of an object * Center (algebra), used in various contexts ** Center (group theory) ** Center (ring theory) * Graph center, the set of all vertices of minimum eccentri ...

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 13,007 of a total population of 17,434. The Cook Islands' Parliament buildings a ...

in the

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, and thus Rennie was eligible for the

Cook Islands national rugby union team The Cook Islands is a third tier rugby union playing nation. They began playing international rugby in early 1971. Thus far, the Cook Islands have not made an appearance at any of the World Cups. History In 1924 a scratch team of Rarotongan boy ...

. He played for the

for one game in 1990, but it was a non-capped match.

Rugby union coaching career

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 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 The New Zealand Under 20's Rugby Team are the representative Rugby Union team from New Zealand. They replace the two former age grade teams Under 19s and Under 21s. Their first tournament was the 2008 IRB Junior World Championship, which they won ...

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 title. In doing so Rennie became the first first-year Super Rugby 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 fish characterized by a cartilaginous skeleton, five to seven gill slits on the sides of the head, and pectoral fins that are not fused to the head. Modern sharks are classified within the clade Selachimorp ...

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

Sonny Bill Williams Sonny Bill Williams (born 3 August 1985) is a New Zealand heavyweight boxer, and a former professional rugby league and rugby union player and as of recently is working for Stan Sports. He is only the List of dual-code rugby internationals#New ...

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 2005–2022 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 brumby, feral horses whi ...

. 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 sometimes directed by the Latin Church in the medieval period. The best known of these Crusades are those to the Holy Land in the period between 1095 and 1291 that were in ...

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 the colonies of Australia as the seat of government for the new nation, it is Australia's largest inland city and the eighth-largest city overall. The ci ...

. * 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 but lost the semifinal against the

Hurricanes A tropical cyclone is a rapidly rotating storm system characterized by a low-pressure center, a closed low-level atmospheric circulation, strong winds, and a spiral arrangement of thunderstorms that produce heavy rain and squalls. Depend ...

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 Gregor Peter John Townsend, (born 26 April 1973) is a Scottish rugby union coach and former player. He is currently the head coach of the Scotland national team having previously been an assistant coach from 2009 to 2012. As a player, he won ...

as head coach for the 2017–18 season. Under Townsend, Warriors were a top

Pro12 The United Rugby Championship (URC) is an annual rugby union competition involving professional teams from Ireland, Italy, Scotland, South Africa, and Wales. The current name was adopted in 2021 when the league expanded to include four South Afr ...

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

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. The current name was adopted in 2021 when the league expanded to include four South Afr ...

semi-finals, but the side was beaten at

Scotstoun Stadium Scotstoun Stadium is an athletics and rugby union stadium in Scotstoun, an area in the West End of Glasgow, Scotland. Glasgow Warriors have trained at the facility since 2009 and have played their home games here from the 2012–13 season ...

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 the European Rugby Champions Cup (which ...

. 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 the home stadium of Celtic Football Club, in the Parkhead area of Glasgow, Scotland. With a capacity of 60,832, it is the largest football stadium in Scotland, and the eighth-largest stadium in the United Kingdom. It is al ...

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

Leinster Leinster ( ; ga, Laighin or ) is one of the provinces of Ireland, situated in the southeast and east of Ireland. The province comprises the ancient Kingdoms of Meath, Leinster and Osraige. Following the 12th-century Norman invasion of Ir ...

capitalised on a

Stuart Hogg Stuart Hogg (born 24 June 1992) is a Scottish rugby union player who plays for Exeter Chiefs in the English Premiership and used to captain the Scottish national team. His playing positions are fullback and fly-half. Hogg has twice been nam ...

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 Germany in the Middle Ages, German woodcut depicting Saracens Saracen ( ) was a term used in the early centuries, both in Greek language, Greek and Latin writings, to refer ...

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 the 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 ...

announced that Rennie would replace

Michael Cheika Michael Cheika (born 4 March 1967) is an Australian rugby union and rugby league coach, and former rugby union player. He is currently head coach of Argentina in rugby union and Lebanon in rugby league. Cheika was the coach of the Australia r ...

as head coach of the

Wallabies A wallaby () is a small or middle-sized macropod native to Australia and New Guinea, with introduced populations in New Zealand, Hawaii, the United Kingdom and other countries. They belong to the same taxonomic family as kangaroos and so ...

. On 12th 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.

Coaching approach

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

Statistics

International matches as head coach

Note: World Rankings Column shows the World Ranking Australia was placed at on the following Monday after each of their matches

Record by country

Honours

* The Rugby Championship ** Runner-up:

2021 File:2021 collage V2.png, From top left, clockwise: the James Webb Space Telescope was launched in 2021; Protesters in Yangon, Myanmar following the 2021 Myanmar coup d'état, coup d'état; A civil demonstration against the October–November 2021 ...

* Nelson Mandela Challenge Plate ** Winner: 2021, 2022 *

Puma Trophy The Puma Trophy () is an international rugby union competition between Argentina and Australia. The trophy is a bronzed statue of a puma. Argentina and Australia first played against each other in 1979 and the trophy itself was established in 20 ...

** Winner: 2020, 2021, 2022 * Trophée des Bicentenaires ** Winner: 2021 *

Hopetoun Cup The Hopetoun Cup was established as a perpetual rugby union trophy between Australia and Scotland in 1998. In the spirit of the link between the two countries, it is named for John Hope, 7th Earl of Hopetoun (1860–1908), a Scotsman, who, as the ...

** Winner: 2022 *

James Bevan Trophy The James Bevan Trophy is a rugby union trophy which was created in 2007, and named after James Bevan, the Welsh Australian who was the first ever captain of the Wales rugby union team in 1881. The trophy was established after a decision on 10 May ...

** 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 people 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