Jason Ryan hails Dave Rennie's 'unbelievable' clarity as All Blacks prepare for France opener

All Blacks assistant coach Jason Ryan has offered an enthusiastic early verdict on Dave Rennie’s tenure, describing the new head coach’s impact as “unbelievable” as New Zealand prepare for their Nations Championship opener against France in Christchurch this Saturday.

Speaking to media on Monday, Ryan — who is serving in his third different All Blacks coaching group after stints under Ian Foster from 2022 and Scott Robertson — said Rennie had wasted no time in setting the tone for the 2026 international season.

“Unbelievable. Tremendously clear on what he wants. Pretty strong in his messaging around how that’s needed and what’s required, which is great, especially for a forwards coach,” Ryan said.

The squad has been together for just under a week in Christchurch, and Ryan revealed the group has spent significant time exploring the All Blacks’ legacy in what he described as a ‘non-finals camp’ format.

“We’ve dug in really deep to the All Black legacy the last couple of days in our ‘non-finals camp’, which has been really authentic and unique to the All Blacks, understanding a little bit of who we want to be as a team. The boys have really owned that and Rens has led that really well.”

Ryan’s own role within the new setup has been sharply defined, with his responsibilities centred on scrummaging and maul work. He explained that fellow assistant coach Barnes is handling lineout attack and defence alongside head coach Mike Blair, while Rennie, Barnes, and Sir Graham Henry oversee team selection.

“Barnesy’s doing the lineout attack and defence and has a lot of the strategy side of it, with Mike. So it leaves me with the scrummaging side of it, the maul attack and D. And we’re all doing a little bit of ball-carrying, breakdown and helping Tana [Umaga] with little D drills.”

Despite his enthusiasm for the new environment, Ryan acknowledged that his contract negotiations with New Zealand Rugby earlier in 2026 were not straightforward.

“I’d like to say personally I’ve just stayed pure to who I am, and I’ve been lucky enough to get an opportunity with Rens in this crew and really looking forward to it,” he said. “There’s no other team that I’d rather coach in the world than the All Blacks.”

New Zealand face Fabien Galthié’s France in Christchurch this Saturday in the first Test of the Nations Championship window.