Race to coach Crusaders a three-way fight
The Crusaders have narrowed down their search for Scott Robertson’s replacement to three candidates, and are on track to make an appointment in the next few weeks.
It’s understood former Canterbury and Waratahs coach Rob Penney is the favourite, although former Fiji and Scotland coach Vern Cotter and Chiefs assistant Ross Filipo remain in the hunt.
The Crusaders are continuing extended talks with all three, having whittled down what was a group of six, which included former All Blacks and Crusaders assistant Brad Mooar.
With their four assistant coaches in place, including the highly touted Tamati Ellison, who the Crusaders believe will make an ideal head coach in the future, the Christchurch-based franchise is looking for a head coach not eager to stamp their mark on the organisation by ripping up foundations and starting over.
Rather, they’re set to appoint someone who won’t deviate from the Crusaders’ DNA, who will continue to grow Ellison, James Marshall, Dan Perrin and new assistant and former Crusaders flanker Matt Todd.
All three finalists have Crusaders or Canterbury connections. Penney guided Canterbury to four straight NPC titles between 2006-2011, Cotter
worked as a Crusaders assistant under Robbie Deans in 2005-06, while Filipo played 45 games for the Super Rugby franchise between 2004-09.
All Blacks coach elect Scott Robertson isn’t on the recruitment panel, but he and senior Crusaders players have been involved in the process, mostly offering insights into candidates.
That bodes well for Penney, who gave Robertson his first crack at coaching in 2008, when the former was in charge of Canterbury and prowling for an assistant coach.
Robertson views Penney, who is also close with Crusaders chief executive Colin Mansbridge, as a mentor after spending four years working under him.
‘‘One thousand questions. I asked him [Penney] a lot of questions,’’ Robertson said in 2020 as he prepared to face Penney’s Waratahs in the Super Rugby season-opener, adding he had a ‘‘great rugby mind’’.
Penney missed out on the Crusaders head coaching job to Todd Blackadder when Robbie Deans departed after the 2008 season,
before waiting until 2019 to coach at Super Rugby level with the Sydneybased Waratahs.
However, he was sacked after they lost their first five games of the Super Rugby AU competition in 2021, at a time Mansbridge regularly checked in with him.
Mansbridge and Crusaders general manager of professional rugby Angus Gardiner are leading the search, while a couple of Crusaders board members and New Zealand Rugby representatives are also on the panel.
Departing Moana Pasifika coach and former Crusaders midfielder and assistant coach Aaron Mauger was not in contention.
Andrew Goodman, an assistant under Robertson between 2018-2022, was at one stage seen as the frontrunner, before he signed a new twoyear deal with Irish club Leinster.
Assistant coach Scott Hansen was also considered a natural replacement for Robertson, but the Crusaders had to rule him out after he agreed to sign up as an All Blacks assistant coach from November.