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Dave Rennie has been appointed the new head coach of New Zealand, becoming the first person of Pasifika heritage to lead the side.

The 62-year-old replaces Scott Robinson, who was sacked in January after two years following high-profile losses to South Africa, Argentina and England as well as reports of tension between senior players and All Blacks staff.

At a news conference in Auckland announcing his appointment, Rennie’s opening words in Maori were “Kia orana koutou”, which translate as “hello to all” or “hello everyone”.

Pasifika heritage encompasses the indigenous peoples of Polynesia, Melanesia and Micronesia, with Upper Hutt-born Rennie having Cook Islands links through his mother.

Having beaten Jamie Joseph to the job, he is tasked with taking the country to its fourth World Cup triumph when the tournament gets under way in Australia next October.

However, he will honour his role leading Japan’s Kobe Steelers before preparing New Zealand for their July tests against France, Italy and Ireland.

Describing himself as “extremely proud and honoured”, Rennie said he was “well aware of the expectations and responsibility of the role” as New Zealand bid for a fourth World Cup success.

“It’s a sprint from here,” said Rennie.

New Zealand Rugby chairman David Kirk said Rennie’s extensive experience had been an important factor in his appointment.

His career includes coaching the All Blacks’ great rivals, Australia, from late 2019 to early 2023.

Overseeing 34 tests, he won 13, drew four and lost 18 – giving him the lowest winning record of any Wallabies coach who had taken at least 30 tests.

While the side notched up notable wins over New Zealand, South Africa and France, they also fell to their first defeat to Italy.

Rennie said team culture would be one of his main focuses when he takes the reigns and that he had an idea of changes he wanted to make to the way the team played.

“[I’m] probably not going to go into massive detail around what that is or the changes we want to make because I don’t want to throw anyone in the previous regime under the bus,” he added.

Hope Gordon remembers looking longingly out of the window of Yorkhill Children’s Hospital for day after day as a teenager.

She remembers seeing Glasgow outside. Remembers the SEC Armadillo being in the foreground. Remembers wondering what “the real world” outside the walls of her ward would hold for her.

The 31-year-old might have had to wait almost a couple of decades, but she will get her answer next summer.

Gordon will be part of Team Scotland for the Commonwealth Games in her home country, and will get to compete in the Armadillo in Para-powerlifting.

“To go from being that kid in that hospital bed, looking out of those windows, to actually being able to compete in that venue… it’s going to be really special,” she tells BBC Sport Scotland.

Glasgow, hospitals and ultimately the amputation of her left leg are a long way from the tiny settlement of Rogart, around 50 miles north of Inverness.

Growing up there, Gordon was always playing one sport or another so a little pain in her left knee was written off as just a natural consequence of that.

But one day, at the age of 12, the leg “stopped working” while she was at school.

“I thought I’d wake up the next day and be fine,” she says. “But one year later I was diagnosed with a condition called complex regional pain syndrome.”

The following nine years were gruelling. Repeated 450-mile round trips to Glasgow for an assortment of unsuccessful treatments. Hospital stays. Time in a wheelchair. But all the while, Gordon kept playing sport. It was her escape.

At the age of 21, she made the most consequential decision she ever could. “I eventually had it off,” she says of her left leg. Partially to stem any spread of the condition, partly to ease the pain, entirely to improve the quality of her life.

And how. A swimmer of some repute during her teenage years, Gordon maintained that initially but found herself keen to try something else.

That something would be para-canoeing. “You’ve still got the the water element and, if you’ve got a disability, water gives somebody such a sense of freedom because it’s easier to move around on water than on land,” she says. “It just ticked the boxes.”

Soon, she was invited on to the British team, moved to Nottingham and has been there since, winning world medals and Paralympic silver in Paris in 2024.

Gordon even found time to dip into winter sports, going to the 2022 Winter Paralympics as a nordic skier after being cajoled into giving it a go by 2026 Games flagbearer Scott Meenagh.

Canoeing is her main sport, though, to the extent that she will be competing at a World Cup event and World Championships either side of the Commonwealths.

And it is her training for that that led Gordon to choose powerlifting as her means of fulfilling a life’s dream of being part of Team Scotland.

“Bench press is one of the key exercises for canoeing so when the programme was announced, I looked at the list and I thought that might be the one,” she explains.

“I had to unlearn quite a bit and learn it again but hopefully it will benefit me on the water too.”

Gordon is keen to temper medal expectations, insisting these Games are actually about something much bigger for her than podium places.

Having watched some of the swimmers she trained with win gold in 2014 – “I was in the crowd and able to to sing Flower of Scotland three times watching Hannah Miley, Ross Murdoch and Dan Wallace” – she has long wanted to represent Scotland.

“Commies has been such a big dream for me,” explains the aspiring bagpiper, sitting in her English home surrounded by Scottish memorabilia. “More so than what some people might argue are bigger goals, like a Paralympics.