I’m pleased for Rob Penney, but I won’t be shocked if he’s not Crusaders head coach next year.
Penney took a pizzling in 2024. Folk came from all quarters to rubbish his coaching and pick holes in his personality.
He didn’t handle it especially well, but I doubt many of us would in the same situation.
Take the Blues of 2025, for instance. Vern Cotter’s not copping anything like the personal attacks Penney endured last year.
Again, Penney bit back at his critics when others might have instead resolved not to give them the satisfaction of knowing it bothered him.
The Crusaders, in large part because they’re a quality organisation, have performed better in 2025 and now attention is turning towards what might happen next year.
Head Coach Rob Penney of the Crusaders. (Photo by Kai Schwoerer/Getty Images)
Penney is off-contract at the end of this campaign, although indications are that no decision on the head coach will be made until there has been a thorough end-of-season review.
Crusaders chief executive Colin Mansbridge was quoted in recent days saying that Penney was focused on the 2025 campaign and wasn’t interested in any contract talks. That’s partly because this is not Penney’s first rodeo.
I first began dealing with Penney in 2008, when he was fighting to save his job as Canterbury coach.
The talk was that Penney was unpopular with many in the organisation and would be sacked at season’s end.
For the first couple of years I covered that team, the only thing that appeared to save Penney was the fact Canterbury kept winning the competition. By the time they’d done it three times in a row his job was secure. Then, following the fourth successive title, he took a gig in Ireland.
It was no mean feat, given how quickly some Canterbury players were elevated to All Black status. The fact they were adequately replaced spoke volumes about the union’s talent identification and academy structure, as much as it did Penney’s coaching of the NPC side.
Not a lot’s changed within Canterbury and Crusaders circles, so the revival in the latter’s fortunes this year isn’t a great surprise. There’s just too much emphasis on winning for that franchise to be down for long.
I’ve always felt Penney would be a slightly stop-gap Crusaders coach. He ended up enjoying a long tenure with Canterbury, but it was his successors, Tabai Matson and Scott Robertson, who won much of the acclaim.
Penney and the Crusaders might win this year’s Super Rugby Pacific title and he might earn a contract extension.
We’re a long way out from the final but, on form, there’s a reasonable chance the Chiefs and Crusaders will contest it. The Chiefs have enough talent to run rings around the Crusaders, but it’s hard to forget their putrid performance in the 2024 decider against the Blues.
A bit like he did with Matson and Robertson, Penney’s probably warming the seat for an assistant. Brad Mooar is arguably best-placed to step up in the short term, while fellow assistants Ryan Crotty, Matt Todd and James Marshall continue to gain experience.
I’m not saying Penney won’t survive beyond this season, but I do feel that it won’t be long before the next generation are ushered through.
The fact there are no contract talks between Penney and the Crusaders definitely doesn’t hurt that argument.
I always liked Penney, but I am aware he does rub some people the wrong way. Maybe that was why he came under so much scrutiny last season.
Again, I think that was unfair given the armchair ride others are getting this year.
I read and heard some utterly absurd things in the opening weeks of the season about the miracles Jamie Joseph was working at the Highlanders. Every other player in their team was an All Blacks bolter and Joseph a candidate for coach of the year.
The Highlanders have a weak roster and the points table doesn’t lie. Nevertheless, Joseph’s job isn’t under threat and nor should it be, given what he has to work with.
Even so, no-one’s giving him the Penney treatment.
Cotter, as I’ve said, is being sympathised with, rather than condemned, for the largely dismal showing of the defending champions. I’ll be curious to see if Cotter continues to get a free pass.
I don’t have anything negative to say about Clark Laidlaw and the Hurricanes. Their record of 4-1-5 suggests they’re an average side achieving average results. That team’s best days are still ahead of it.
Clayton McMillan is leaving the Chiefs, so there’ll be no great critique of him. That said, the Chiefs’ best rugby is brilliant, but I remain to be convinced they can win when things get difficult.
I have great respect for McMillan, but he hasn’t developed a ruthless streak in the Chiefs that’s been the hallmark of so many Crusaders sides.
This particular Crusaders team is yet to demonstrate that it has that streak, which might give management a convenient out if the title eludes Penney this season.
Hamish Bidwellhttps://https://ift.tt/WqJR5by Super Rugby coach given an utterly absurd armchair ride – and the one who’s copped an unfair ‘pizzling’
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