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Dave Rennie balances high standards with pride after emotional All Blacks victory
Henry Lee in Edinburgh • November 9th, 2026 10:26 am
Dave Rennie | Photo: Photosport
You could forgive the All Blacks for taking a moment to pause after an emotional Test week.
Beauden Barrett explained it was the toughest Test week of his 14-year international career, and post-match, whoever you talked to wearing a silver fern on their chest would agree with that sentiment.
“It took days to even contemplate wanting to play a game of rugby,” Barrett said.
All Blacks head coach Dave Rennie, alongside captain Codie Taylor, were visibly reflective in their post-match press conference.
The pair were preparing for a meeting out in the middle of Murrayfield, with the family of their late Head of Security, Logan Cadwallader, following the tragic passing of their beloved team member eight days ago.
“We wanted to win for him,” Taylor said after his side’s 43-21 victory over Scotland.
“Like I said earlier, this week’s been a lot bigger than rugby. It’s about acknowledging one of our brothers that has fallen: a husband, a father, a son, who was highly respected in our group.
“To be able to go out there tonight and get the result – I know there was a lot of emotion in the anthem, and looking across to the management, how much they were feeling it as well. So, there was definitely a bit more of a motivation there to front up and represent the jersey and represent him.”
All Blacks lock, Tupou Vaa’i, talking to Sport Nation and other reporters, called Cadwallader the team’s “unsung hero”.
“For all of us to do that for Caddy shows how important he was to us as a group. We love Caddy so much, it was awesome for us to do that for him.”
Taylor, who admitted he was unaware that the non-playing reserves were set to honour Cadwallader with Ka Mate from the sideline, said it showed the togetherness of this All Blacks group.
“I wasn’t actually aware at the time, but I talked to Richie, and what I know is that everyone wanted to pull the jersey on tonight. Obviously that can’t happen, so from what I hear, their thinking was ‘we want to be a part of the haka because we can actually pay our respects that way.
“It just goes to show the connection of the group and how much Loges meant to us.”
Rennie provided constructive criticism of his side’s performance along with a sense of pride.
"Our discipline wasn't good enough in the first half and if you give Scotland that many entries they will hurt you,'' the head coach admitted.
"So we changed to a shorter kicking game in the second half, which we got a lot of reward off and denied them the chance to counter.
"I thought we were pretty clinical, maybe not as good as we were against the Wallabies, but some good stuff.'
"I thought we defended really well, especially in the second half, a lot of our big men getting two shoulders in the tackles and buying us a lot of time to get bodies in front and go again.''
Murrayfield pays tribute to Ally Donaldson and Logan Cadwallader | Photo: Matt Impey/Photosport
All Blacks tighthead prop Fletcher Newell was quietly pleased with his front row’s scrum work, highlighting Scott Barrett’s influence as a key factor.
“I think we’ve been building really nicely,” Newell said post-match.
“Obviously, working through Rugby's Greatest Rivalry, I feel like we’ve gone from strength to strength with our scrum, and we’ve been putting in a lot of work in that.
“Credit to the boys that set us up throughout the week, the boys that aren’t playing – jeez, we’ve got so many good props in our squad, and anyone could be out there, and to be able to scrum against them, train against them, it makes our job easier when we go out on the field on Saturday.
“I think it just probably took a lot of learning and problem-solving. Obviously, having Scott Barrett back adds a lot of weight in the engine room, and he’s a highly experienced scrummager, and he loves it.
“So, I think it’s just the work we’ve been doing in training, putting a lot of emphasis on it, because, as All Blacks, we need to pride ourselves on our scrum, and it was awesome to be able to do that tonight.”
The All Blacks’ next Nations Championship fixture is against Wales at Principality Stadium in Cardiff next Sunday morning, 3:10am kick-off (NZ time).
Mark Watson on his recent criticism of Beauden Barrett | The Rugby Run
