When current New Zealand supremo Dave Rennie first linked up with the Glasgow Warriors in 2017, I was working as a strategist for Stuart Lancaster and Leo Cullen at Leinster. Both clubs played in the same league – the URC as it is now, the Pro 12 or Pro 14 as it was back then, before the introduction of the four South African Super Rugby franchises.
We all understood that the new kid on the block would present a major challenge in the near future. Glasgow had finished sixth in the league under current Scotland head coach Gregor Townsend, and he already was putting together a side with high-value attacking skill-sets, with a wide range of weapons at their disposal.
In Rennie’s first season at the club, the Warriors dominated the ‘A’ conference, scoring 15 wins out of 21 matches and reaching the semi-final stage, before losing to eventual runners-up, the Scarlets from West Wales. As Leinster and Glasgow were also drawn together in the same pool at the 2017-18 European Rugby Champions Cup – which Leinster ultimately won – I had ample opportunity to break down what a Dave Rennie team really looked like in every aspect of the game.
When he first arrived in Scotland, the man himself outlined the basic philosophy he would apply with his new charges:
“I want us to play a brand of footy that’s attractive and that requires us to be incredibly fit, explosive, powerful and with a high skill set. It’s similar to what [the Warriors] played already, so our job is to take that to another level.
“We want our big men to carry and be highly-skilled so you need to put time [into] that part of the game. We also want to be brutal. We play a lot of [weather] conditions here where it’s cold and wet and you need to alter that style of game you play. The plan will be able to play a multitude of styles that suit the conditions, and who we’re playing.”
Dave Rennie’s playing philosophy was strongly moulded by his experience with All Blacks ‘Professor’ and Rugby Site founding member Sir Wayne Smith at the Chiefs in Super Rugby in the years 2012-2014:
“He’s fantastic and the best coach in the world. It was a privilege to coach with him for three years.
“If we defended really well and we got a turnover, we were pretty clinical around that.
“The ball is kicked to you as many times in a game as you have scrums, lineouts and kick-offs put together so there are plans around ”https://www.therugbysite.com/coaching-videos/coaches-corner/counter-attack-hs-and-a">counter [attack], which have been effective for us.
“From a Glasgow point of view, I want us to have a confidence that if it’s ‘on’, we launch from anywhere – if it’s 95 metres out, it’s sometimes easier than five out.”
It is that last paragraph which sticks with me now. If there was one distinctive characteristic which identified Dave Rennie’s Warriors above all others, it was their willingness to counter-attack from their own 22, and most especially from kick-offs by the opposition after Glasgow had just scored. When I rummage among the boxes in my attic now, I find sheafs and sheafs of notes piled on top of each other, all under the moniker ‘Dave Rennie’s Glasgow’ – but the eight pages marked in deepest red are entitled ‘Glasgow kick-off returns’.
Those kick-off returns were such a significant factor in developing the confidence of #10 Finn Russell and the momentum of the attack built around him. that they deserved special attention. On kick-off chase, were employed an aggressive defensive pattern we usually reserved for positions far further downfield, with 13 men in the line and only two defenders in the backfield. Stopping ‘the Rennie return’ from deep with ball in hand was that important to the overall game-plan.
With the benefit of hindsight, what wouldn’t have Les Kiss’ Wallabies given to read those notes from the attic in the first Bledisloe Cup at the Garden of Eden Park! The All Blacks built their ball-control offence off the back of kick-off returns:
https://t.co/l0RYDxnlR7
— William Bishop (@RPvids1994) October 13, 2026
https://t.co/UXm5fzuhaa
— William Bishop (@RPvids1994) October 13, 2026
The overhead shot from the kick-off highlights the key the All Blacks had probably identified to return the ball by hand. Two defenders drop to the backfield but #9 Ryan Lonergan is initially drifting off behind the front line in a sweeping role. With only 12 defenders in the front line, the All Blacks know they can comfortably probe for weaknesses. When Lonergan begins to commit further forward as play moves right-to-left at 13:45, his opposite number Can Roigard goes to the boot.
After a reclaim in the air by Leroy Carter, the same pattern is repeated a little further upfield, with Lonergan again playing ‘off’ and the All Blacks content to keep ball in hand until a gap inevitably opens at 14:40 on the game-clock.
When the Wallaby scrum-half pushed up to the line more quickly at a kick-off later in the half, Roigard took to the airwaves more promptly in response:
https://t.co/uwFEqnvHmp
— William Bishop (@RPvids1994) October 13, 2026
The principle of countering from deep was not restricted to kick-off returns. At one of their own 22m drop-outs in the 25th minute, New Zealand also looked for a short tap-and-run:
https://t.co/U0cfjY94ga
— William Bishop (@RPvids1994) October 13, 2026
Another extended run-and-ruck sequence only comes to an end when Lonergan is finally persuaded to press up on to his opposite number and give up the deeper role as sweeper.
Summary
A leopard very rarely changes its spots, and coaching leopards are no exception to the rule. Current New Zealand supremo Dave Rennie has brought the same principles to the running of the All Blacks that he espoused in the Waikato and in Glasgow. If your shared history goes back far enough into the past, you know you will sight the leopard’s spots through the jungle camouflage before it ever breaks cover: ‘I want us to have a confidence that if it’s ‘on’, we launch from anywhere – if it’s 95 metres out, it’s sometimes easier than five out.’ What was true ten years ago still holds good today.
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