This time it’s not personal
We will probably never know exactly what thoughts bounced around inside Rob Penney’s brain when the Waratahs tore up his contract in 2021.
They may not have been fit for print. Or perhaps a frustrated Penney was relieved to cut ties with the Sydney-based club after the team was win-less from its five opening games, forcing his departure fewer than two seasons deep into a threeyear contract.
The peripatetic life of a professional coach meant Penney later found work in Japan, before he arrived back in his old town of Christchurch to take over from Scott Robertson at the Crusaders, the Super Rugby Pacific champions.
When the competition draw for this season was revealed, Penney’s eyes may have been drawn to the second-round fixture against the Waratahs in the “Super Round’’ in Melbourne on Saturday night; not that you will get him to admit it.
While adamant he’s not thinking about how sweet it would be to torpedo the Waratahs’ plans to collect a prized New Zealand scalp, Penney wouldn’t be human if he did not want to see the Crusaders bulldoze the New South Welshmen into the gutter.
For all that, however, there’s also the task of ensuring he can tool up the Crusaders to earn their first victory under his control after they lost 33-29 in their firstround game against the Chiefs in Hamilton last weekend,
“No, there’s none of that, I just want the boys to play well,’’ Penney responded when asked if he wanted revenge on the Waratahs. "My time there … and relationships ... were really strong. I have good affinity with a lot of people still back there.
“Circumstances were difficult at the time, as you know. It’s more about our performance and what we do on Saturday night, and I feel as though not everything went to plan against the Chiefs.”'
Although not the first Kiwi to struggle to extract the best from the Waratahs – Daryl Gibson experienced a frustrating stint between 2016 and 2019 – Penney was
“I have good affinity with a lot of people still back there.”
Crusaders coach Rob Penney on his time in charge of the Waratahs
stunned to learn that within days of signing with the club, and before he had even arrived in Sydney, chief executive Andrew Hore was moving to the Auckland-based Blues.
If the start was ropey, the ending was worse. A modest squad, the pandemic and the string of poor results in 2021 meant Penney was shown the door.
“Those sorts of circumstances aren’t really learnings, they are pretty challenging to your resilience factor,’’ he said. “You are philosophical about it in the end. That’s where it sits, really.”'
Penney, without exactly saying it, wasn’t going to bang on about the dramas that unfolded at the Waratahs. He was more content to outline what had happened in the days after the defeat to the Chiefs, a game the visitors could have won had they not conceded a couple of late penalties that were converted into points by Josh Ioane.
Penney said he couldn’t fault his players and staff for the way they had reviewed that defeat, and prepped for the Waratahs, a team that lost to the Queensland Reds in their opening game.
Injuries continue to chew into the Crusaders squad: tighthead prop Tamaiti Williams (hamstring) and first five-eighth Rivez Reihana (shoulder) were hurt against the Chiefs, and will probably be unavailable until after the bye on April 6. The loss of Williams has been offset by the arrival of another All Black in Fletcher Newell.