How globetrotting coach Rob Penney finally secured top job at ...
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Rob Penney, who played more than 100 games for Canterbury, and later coached in Ireland, Japan and Australia, has signed a two-year deal with the Crusaders. He will replace Scott Robertson next season.
The news wasn't good for Rob Penney following his interview for the Crusaders head coach's job in 2008.
He had mis-timed his run; Todd Blackadder was preferred as the successor to the departing Robbie Deans. As the years passed, it seemed Penney's chances of being given the keys to the most successful team in Super Rugby had vanished.
Now, 15 years later, everything has fallen in place.
Penney has accepted a two-year contract and will soon return to Christchurch to replace good friend Scott Robertson, the latter having been appointed All Blacks coach for four years from 2024.
Everything's come together for Penney to make what should be a relatively smooth transition when he arrives at the Crusaders' base at Rugby Park in Christchurch on August 1.
His assistants are already set in stone. The current crew of Tamati Ellison, Dan Perrin and James Marshall will be joined by ex-All Blacks flanker Matt Todd.
Crusaders CEO Colin Mansbridge is also a familiar face, having played in the Burnside senior team alongside Penney when the club was one of the giants of the Christchurch metro competition in the early to mid-1990s.
While Penney never represented the Crusaders or the All Blacks, he was an uncompromising loose forward for Canterbury and clocked up more than 100 games for the province before his final game in 1994.
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Rob Penney was one of the assistant coaches at the Crusaders in 2005.
Penney later transitioned into coaching. He was an assistant coach at the Crusaders in 2005. But it was with Canterbury, the team won four consecutive NPC titles under his watch, the last in 2011, that he made an impact.
The next year he got the plum job of coaching the New Zealand under-20 team before heading offshore.
The nomadic lifestyle of a professional coach is laid bare on his CV. The Munster club in Ireland, a couple of stints with clubs in Japan and a less-than-memorable tenure with the Waratahs, when CEO Andrew Hore abandoned ship to join the Blues just days after Penney was appointed in late 2019, makes for busy reading.
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Rob Penney, pictured at a Canterbury training with former All Blacks captain Richie McCaw, later moved to Ireland and Japan to coach.
Penney says his ill-fated tenure at the Waratahs, when he was sacked early in the 2021 season after a 0-5 start to the season and had an overall record of seven wins from 29 games, taught him how fast the rugby landscape can shift.
Hore's unexpected exit was compounded by a reduced budget and players joining clubs that were prepared to unleash their dollars.
"Sport in general can change pretty quick, and things changed before I had even stepped on the ground there,'' Penney said. "And the environment changed pretty rapidly. But I loved my time there, equally, got some great friends and fantastic relations with players.
"It just wasn't to be.''
So it was back to Japan, where he recruited controversial Wallabies star Israel Folau to play for his club side, the NTT Communications Shining Arcs.
Penney says it wasn't just the Waratahs' experience that bolstered his knowledge of how to deal with unpleasant, or unexpected challenges.
"My time in Japan here, I describe it sometimes as you are coaching with a plastic bag over your head, because there's so many challenges in Japan. You are operating at a totally different level.
"I am so proud to have spent seven or eight years here, because it's not an easy place to ply your trade.''
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Rob Penney coached Canterbury to four NPC titles between 2008 and 2011.
Penney should have a much happier time of it with the Crusaders. Although All Blacks Sam Whitelock, Richie Mo'unga and Leicester Fainga'anuku will leave New Zealand after the World Cup, the bulk of the championship-winning squad that has been signed by Robertson will remain.
Penney is currently in Japan, where he's preparing that country's national under-20 team for the world championships in South Africa.
He wasn't the only coach on the Crusaders radar, with Mansbridge acknowledging they did speak to a number of potential candidates. Among those mentioned around the traps were Andrew Goodman, Vern Cotter and Ross Filipo.
Mansbridge and Penney both spoke of the importance of upskilling the current group of assistants, clearly with the view of one of them, possibly Ellison, being promoted.
Whether that is after Penney has completed two years, or longer, remains to be seen. He acknowledged he had been "given a definite brief''.
"Two things about that. The world is a funny place, as we know, and things can change,'' Penney noted. "It doesn't take much to tip the balance but the Crusaders board have an aspiration.
"I have brought in, and committed entirely, to achieve that. If along the way, things change, I am a passionate coach and I love coaching. Who knows what the future might hold.''
