Dave Rennie is the new All Blacks coach following the departure of Scott Robertson in January.

New Zealand Rugby made the announcement on social media.

Rennie has coached grassroots club rugby, NPC, Super Rugby, under-20s, European club rugby and the Wallabies - now he’ll take over their Bledisloe Cup rivals.

Rennie played more than 50 games for Wellington as a midfield back from 1986 through to 1991 but his coaching path began in 1999 at Upper Hutt Rugby Football Club. A year later he replaced Graham Mourie as Wellington Lions coach, leading them to an NPC title beating Canterbury in the final.

He coach the New Zealand under-20s to three straight world championship titles and spent six seasons with Manawatū before taking on the head coaching role at the Chiefs. Rennie coached the Chiefs to back-to-back championships in his first two years in charge, and made the Super Rugby playoffs in every year of his reign.

In 2016, he announced he was leaving the Chiefs for a head coaching role with the Glasgow Warriors before he replaced Michael Cheika as Wallabies coach in 2020. In 2023 with a World Cup less than nine months away, Rugby Australia replaced Rennie with Eddie Jones. Rennie has since been coaching Japanese side Kobe Steelers.

Scott Robertson stood down as All Blacks coach in mid-January, two years into what was supposed to be a four-year contract running through to the next Rugby World Cup.

Speculation about a likely replacement had quickly centred on Dave Rennie and Jamie Joseph. The selection process was overseen by a five-man panel of former All Blacks hookers Dane Coles and Keven Mealamu NZR chair David Kirk (another former All Black), interim chief executive Steve Lancaster and high-performance expert Don Tricker.

Before interviewing the two candidates this week, panel members travelled to see Rennie coaching in Japan and Joseph at work with the Highlanders in Dunedin.

Former All Blacks coach Scott Robertson stood down in January. Photo / Photosport

Robertson’s time in charge of the side was marked by a run of poor results against major nations, including a record defeat to the Springboks in Wellington last year. Defeat to England at Twickenham in November ended a rare shot at landing a Grand Slam tour.

While Robertson was in charge, assistant coaches Leon MacDonald and Jason Holland both stood down from their roles in the set up.

Robertson has since landed a temporary role coaching the Barbarians in a match against the Springboks. As reported by Gregor Paul in the Herald, as part of what was believed to be a circa $1 million termination settlement with New Zealand Rugby, Robertson has restrictions on where he can coach until the end of the year, and is understood to have agreed a 12-month restraint of trade from coaching top-tier nations.