Bledisloe Cup rugby: 11 things you need to know about Wallabies' Kiwi coach Dave Rennie

Dave Rennie - the Kiwi saviour of Australian rugby? Photos / Photosport

Dave Rennie has hit the ground running as the new Wallabies coach, after an upset draw against the All Blacks in Wellington.

Here's a potted history of the man who could be Australian rugby's saviour.

1) Rennie, a crunching midfield back, made his provincial debut for Wellington in 1986, the last year the Wallabies won a test match at Eden Park. Wellington were unbeaten in winning the title that year. Rennie went on to play about 60 provincial games, and retired prematurely because of shoulder injuries.

2) Wellington, featuring superstars like Jonah Lomu, next won the NPC title in 2000, the first season Rennie was in charge as their coach. In a match studded with All Blacks, they beat Canterbury in the Christchurch final and were rewarded with a massive victory parade in the capital.

One of Rennie's rival coaches that day was Robbie Deans, the only previous non-Australian to guide the Wallabies. Wellington haven't won it since.

3) Rennie has Cook Islands heritage - his mother Ngametua came to New Zealand as a 20-year-old. She and Dave Rennie Snr, a railways employee, had three children, with Dave being the youngest. Ngametua – who worked for the Upper Hutt City Council – was rated an excellent netballer and tennis player.

Dave Rennie - the Kiwi saviour of Australian rugby? Photos / Photosport

4) His former Wellington teammate Murray Mexted – the outstanding All Blacks No 8 – believed Australia were on to a winner.

"He is a sensational appointment for Australian rugby in my view [and] I hate to tell you from a New Zealand point of view ... he will be great," Mexted said. Mexted gave Rennie a coaching lifeline at his rugby academy when he was struggling to get a top job.

5) What's he like? Former Chiefs player Ross Filipo put it this way:
"He loves a laugh, he'll sit there and have a joke. He's very charismatic, he's just a good bastard, to be honest."

But his former Chiefs assistant Wayne Smith, the great All Black mentor, warned his Aussie bosses they might not always find him such a good bastard. "He's prepared to put himself in the gun sights of those above him to fight for what he thinks is right," said Smith.

6) The Wallabies coach is a former school teacher, and he also set up an Upper Hutt bar called the Lonely Goatherd.

"Teaching, coaching, it's the same thing … the kids are just a bit bigger," Rennie once said. The Lonely Goatherd is a song from Rodgers and Hammerstein's famous musical 'The Sound of Music' and involves yodelling.

7) And Rennie is a keen guitarist and singer, although there isn't any mention of yodelling. "As a young fella, I'm the youngest in our family and my brother and sister would drag me along to a party so I could play so everyone else could drink," Rennie says.

Wallabies coach Dave Rennie. Photo / Photosport

8) Rennie broke the Chiefs title drought in his first season in charge, in 2012, but the final was a bittersweet moment. As his team were thrashing the Sharks at Waikato Stadium, thieves hit his Hamilton home taking a safe containing his wife Steph's jewellery.

9) Rennie is one of the very few Wallabies coaches in history to base himself in Queensland. He wanted plenty of support for Steph and the coach has sisters in Queensland. Dave and Steph have three sons, and are grandparents.

10) He didn't win any silverware in charge of the Glasgow Warriors, but still had plenty of fans including New Zealand Rugby. Rennie stuck by his pledge to coach the Wallabies rather than join the All Black coaching race.

"I'm a proud Kiwi but the big thing is I've been talking to Australia for a lot of months and the All Blacks interest came in late in the piece and by that stage, we'd done a lot of homework, we were really excited about the opportunity to go to Australia and that ended up being an easy decision," he said.

11) Rennie is on $1m a year but won a lot of fans when he volunteered to take a pay cut after Covid-19 hit Aussie rugby hard.