December 12, 2025 • 14 mins
Rob Penney's capped off his zero-to-hero transformation with the Super Rugby title winning Crusaders mentor named coach of the year.
True to form, Penney deflected the spotlight, crediting the Board, Management, fellow coaches, and senior players for the team’s and ultimately his success. Still, he’s deeply proud of the turnaround from 2024 and excited for what’s ahead in 2026.
He joined Lesley Murdoch for a chat about his time as coach and the milestone the Crusaders are chasing.
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
It's all about sports, Canterbury's All Sports Breakfasts.
Speaker 2 (00:04):
With Leslie Murdock and might have ten maker supporting local
riendly Kiwi ode and Operator news talks. It be the
news had.
Speaker 3 (00:16):
Come out in the First World War. The bloody Red
barn is flying once more.
Speaker 2 (00:23):
The al command all of.
Speaker 1 (00:26):
This man call on stupid news stalks, he'd be it
is fifteen minutes past eight. Well, what a treat we
have got on the line the man who won four
New Zealand Rugby Coach of the Year, Rob Penny, and
he joins us, good morning, Rob.
Speaker 2 (00:43):
What a great little turn that is.
Speaker 1 (00:46):
It did happen to know that it's your fave Craig
Cuz in the studio as well, And we just wanted
to give our congratulations because we know look degree of
difficulty given one year to the other. And I loved
your interview on those New Zealand Rugby awards. But first
of all, you know, what did you think when you
(01:06):
were told that you were the winner?
Speaker 2 (01:08):
Look? I was a bit dumbfounded, to be honest, but
quickly just so privileged to work in the organization I
do and with the people I do, And as I said,
you know, I felt like it was a little bit
of an ironic position to be in, But I was
(01:28):
just a conduit for the organization and the great coaching
staff and management people that I work with to receive
an award and one I bet they be justly reserved.
Speaker 1 (01:39):
But by the same token the year before, you're the
one that took the flag as head coach, so you know,
you well, you are saying the right things and you
really do mean them, but at the end it still
was on your shoulders.
Speaker 2 (01:53):
Yeah. Yeah, Look, I just think it's the just the
nature of the beast. You know, people want to point
the finger and have someone to blame. Okay, that's cool,
And you know I was you know, I was not happy,
but I was in a position where it was, you know,
ultimately the responsibility was on me, and I was prepared
(02:16):
and happy to take that responsibility. So, you know, like
the key thing was that, you know, we kept the
faith we've always believed in the playing group and the
coaches and the management, the board all stuck to the
plan and you know, we were able to review really
assiduously and at the back end of that, we've you know,
(02:39):
one or two little changes and you know, success happened.
But again, lest they'll just reiterate the fine margins between
success and failure, and at top end sport they are
very fine, and you know, sometimes you know, they culminate
in a bit of a catastrophe because you know, multiple
things don't go for you, which was to before. We
(03:01):
had multiple things go for in twenty five we made
some changes as well, so I think there's got to
be some credit given to the management in the way
that was handled. But yeah, anyway, definitely the outcomes awesome.
Speaker 1 (03:14):
I know what you're saying, and I do remember Scott
Robertson saying after twenty seventeen when he won his first title,
he said, you need a lot of things to go
your way to win a title, a lot of things,
and that's absolutely true. And even you know, getting to
host the final, getting the team that everybody else around
the country wanted to win wasn't going to be the Crusaders.
(03:36):
They wanted to win, They wanted the Chiefs to win.
But just everything coming together and it just gave so
many people so much pleasure because we listened to the
Crusaders in Canterbury. Whichever sport they are unbagged all the.
Speaker 2 (03:50):
Time, well, it's a credit to the organized it's a
credit to Red and Black, both organizations that did a
great job this year, from you know, the logistics component
right through to your captain and leaders on the park.
And it's a great reflection of our whole feed particularly
right there. But a small than Cambriy is and always
(04:12):
has been. There's a great desire to keep this problems
at the forefront and whatever the arena you're in. And yeah,
it's such to be here morning pens Curly here morning mate.
Speaker 3 (04:25):
Are you well?
Speaker 2 (04:26):
I'm great, Thank you, good boy.
Speaker 3 (04:28):
Hey, you talk about ironic sleepy is Christmas as well?
You either love it or you hate it, right, so,
but like coaching or coaches, so you're right. You talked
about the small things and one of the things you've
mentioned a few times is is the is the game
in Fiji with all the cloud coming the cloud cover
(04:49):
came over. But you know, outside of that, other little things,
I guess luck, injuries not quite as bad as last year.
I've been able to be able to put a consistent
sort of team on the park. All those kind of
things just tied in nicely for you, didn't they.
Speaker 2 (05:07):
Yeah, And I'm lots of taking any like, the management
need to take a lot of credit. But the planning
we put into the Fiji trip was as deep and
as wide reaching as I've ever been a part of
a plan because Crusaders have never been the drawer over there,
and it's a difficult place to win for us, and
it has been and we had to change some things
(05:29):
and we got all that but right, but the cloud
coming over was like the icing on the cake, trust
because it was a it was a brutal morning heat
was so yeah, you know the way in which see
up our set piece and getting two late penalties against
the Blues to secure the home final. You know, there's
(05:50):
things that happened during the season that the year before
we just couldn't buy a penalty at times, let alone
getting two in a row in five minutes. But that
takes credit from from our scrummaging, you know, Fretch and
New and Tonight Williams at the back end of the game,
g O Bauer, George Belle, Kadie Taylor, that group of
men along with DP setting it up. So they need
(06:13):
a lot of credit, but you also need the ref
reader see the pitchers. Yeah, you know, yeah, those things were,
you know, in the last minute when the Blues were
attacking us. I think we had something like thirty tackles
in that six minute sequence. Just before full time, the
ball pops out, Christian Leo dives on it. Great, say
(06:34):
we get the ball back, kick the ball out, game over.
Another referee would have penalized Christian Leo if for diving
on the ball next to the ruck, which you can't do.
So like, there's moments like that, As I said that,
we look back on and go, yep, that's we got one.
Lbourne once said to me when we were talking about
(06:55):
the frustration sometimes of being a coach, fifty to fifty
decisions usually end up being fifty fifty. So if you
extrapolate your career over a long period of time, the
ones we missed in twenty four, we probably gotten twenty five,
you know what I mean? So eager.
Speaker 1 (07:13):
Yeah, But the thing is that the Crusaders board and
management had faith in you because some people may not
have had a different franchise. Who knows. We'll never be
able to answer that.
Speaker 2 (07:25):
Would we No, you wouldn't, leslie, But one hundred percent
of correct, I've been through that. We're board obviously didn't
see the vision when I was at the cars and
didn't have patients Crusaders very passionate about their team, and
you know, I knew patients was wearing thin. But within
the inner circle the inn a Sanctum Colin mains for
(07:47):
a genus Gardner grant, your gman, Brett Francis, none of
them bought always at my side, always asking what help
I needed, and they were living every moment with me
like it was. There were moments that it was really tough,
you know, but because they didn't flunch, I was. I
(08:13):
was determined to, you know, do what I could, everything
I could to make it better, and I just couldn't
have a dream result. Because you're twenty four to twenty
five that I guess that he's the precious pens And you.
Speaker 3 (08:29):
Mentioned it the other night during your interview on't accepting
that award. It's not just the blowtorch. Wasn't just on
your wife, Frants, it was on all those men you've
just mentioned as well to to continue to back you.
And you know, in the in the I guess in
the in the face of you know, the public going crazy,
that you know, the media going crazy and all that
sort of carry on for them to just I guess
(08:52):
turn a little bit of a blind eye to that
or absorb it, but just stick with your men. And
I guess you know, for you, mate, you'll be for
you ever thankful for.
Speaker 2 (09:00):
That one hundred eternally grateful. You know. The easy thing
would have been to make a change and they would
have been well within their rights. But the beauty about
the organization and we're getting even better at it now,
there's things that are really integrated. So the board are
invited down they see the work going and CEO columb
(09:24):
Maine Bridge gem Angus Gardener are all over. The conversations
and the meetings that are had on a regular basis,
which make such a pleasure work for because this conversation
is happening all the time, very organic support or advice
going to and fro and am very dynamic and a
(09:48):
solution based way. And at the end of the day,
that's why the organization had so much success. Great people
doing great work. And I'm not trying to blow my
trumpet in that regard that I'm the saying the story.
There's a lot of institutional knowledge and wealth and understanding
on how this place operates and there's there's guardians all
the way through keeping an eye on what's happening. You know,
(10:12):
some of the greats playing wise come and they offer
themselves and they try to provide solutions when things aren't gala.
It's just awesome to be a part of. So going
back to your original, yes, shit year, they were in
a difficult situation as well. But I guess that the
(10:37):
cohesiveness in the interlocking of every department in the way
which it functions people. You know, it's not a lockdown
siege mentality where people are excluded. People were intimately involved
the whole process. They knew going through five verse five
in a season isn't conduced of they having a lot
of success. You know that there was one little bit
(11:01):
of drama that we had to deal with and a
challenging one and no one's fault. Injuries happened and you know,
Fugus birth rutching his achilles at the end of the
NPC just didn't allow them to come back. You know,
we won the last three games. I took up third
back and now we've you know, Grand Tahara rivers with
(11:22):
you know, jobs involvement. Last year, the organization set up
with a great preacher and James White tucked them behind
them ready for opportunity now and so you know that's all,
that's what we do. We had we had some hurdles
as you said there that management who needed to know
were intimately involved with everything, and they were very loyal
(11:43):
and as I said, I'll be terally grateful.
Speaker 1 (11:46):
Well, it is built on here atage, isn't it. And
the givingness even though it's a professional sport. You know,
I look at the Crusaders who went down to the
Special Olympics and yesterday, I think it was all the
doug for you know, just that I think they give
back to the community. We don't quite appreciate how much
they do give back. Apart from on the field, they
(12:07):
do give in a professional environment. They are definitely givers.
Rob and I think you're incredibly modest and understated, but
take everything that comes your way because you've certainly earned
it and earned it the hard way.
Speaker 2 (12:21):
I really appreciate the comment, but the Bulls are unreal
in terms of the community service. They provide that opportunity
to go down to the new center there and be
with the Special Olympics. Was the joy on the boys
faces was as much as anything. There was another group
of us that went to City Mission and set up
(12:42):
the Christmas trees and did some tiding up its pieces
for them. The week before, we're over at Toy Children's
Homes spending. I think we're over there for about four hours,
repairing bikes, weeding, gardening, and that's the whole group of management.
So it's that that's just the crusader and picking the
(13:02):
people that need some support and some help is a
great honor for us. And you know that'll serve a
side of it as something that the young men and
the organization loved to do. They love to get out
and be a part of the community, and I think
that's why the community ultimately loves them.
Speaker 1 (13:18):
Yeah, and there's no doubt about that. Absolutely, And thank
you for picking up the phone this morning. We really
appreciate it. We could not let this moment go without
saying congratulations. We know how hard earned it was in
a variety of ways, but we loved it. We loved
twenty twenty five because we do like winning. There's no
disguising that fact either. But Rob Penny, thank you and
(13:39):
Merry Christmas. And yes, you can rest a little bit
easier although it doesn't, it's not too long before it
starts again.
Speaker 2 (13:47):
What are exciting twenty six we've got, We've got you know,
we've got three games in the in the I guess
the old arena at Addington there and the organization to
tom ninety eight wins at that stadium, so there's hopefully
a really special milestone attained attained at the early part
of the campaign. And then we're moving into Caha and
(14:09):
what an experience that's going to be for everyone. I
think the first game is sold out and.
Speaker 1 (14:15):
You know.
Speaker 2 (14:17):
The boys will prepare well, are in great space mentally
and excited about the competition and looking forward to it
and being able to get our feet on the grass
at Takaha with an indoor stadium right there. That's that's
going to be so special. So Merry Christmas to you, Lisie,
Thanks very much for all your support. You've been awesome
big and look forward to seeing you in the new year.
Speaker 1 (14:39):
Absolutely and have a great Christmas. Thank you, Rob Penny.
For more from News Talks ed B listen live on
air or online, and keep our shows with you wherever
you go with our podcast on iart Radio.
It's all about sports, Canterbury's All Sports Breakfasts.
Speaker 2 (00:04):
With Leslie Murdock and might have ten maker supporting local
riendly Kiwi ode and Operator news talks. It be the
news had.
Speaker 3 (00:16):
Come out in the First World War. The bloody Red
barn is flying once more.
Speaker 2 (00:23):
The al command all of.
Speaker 1 (00:26):
This man call on stupid news stalks, he'd be it
is fifteen minutes past eight. Well, what a treat we
have got on the line the man who won four
New Zealand Rugby Coach of the Year, Rob Penny, and
he joins us, good morning, Rob.
Speaker 2 (00:43):
What a great little turn that is.
Speaker 1 (00:46):
It did happen to know that it's your fave Craig
Cuz in the studio as well, And we just wanted
to give our congratulations because we know look degree of
difficulty given one year to the other. And I loved
your interview on those New Zealand Rugby awards. But first
of all, you know, what did you think when you
(01:06):
were told that you were the winner?
Speaker 2 (01:08):
Look? I was a bit dumbfounded, to be honest, but
quickly just so privileged to work in the organization I
do and with the people I do, And as I said,
you know, I felt like it was a little bit
of an ironic position to be in, But I was
(01:28):
just a conduit for the organization and the great coaching
staff and management people that I work with to receive
an award and one I bet they be justly reserved.
Speaker 1 (01:39):
But by the same token the year before, you're the
one that took the flag as head coach, so you know,
you well, you are saying the right things and you
really do mean them, but at the end it still
was on your shoulders.
Speaker 2 (01:53):
Yeah. Yeah, Look, I just think it's the just the
nature of the beast. You know, people want to point
the finger and have someone to blame. Okay, that's cool,
And you know I was you know, I was not happy,
but I was in a position where it was, you know,
ultimately the responsibility was on me, and I was prepared
(02:16):
and happy to take that responsibility. So, you know, like
the key thing was that, you know, we kept the
faith we've always believed in the playing group and the
coaches and the management, the board all stuck to the
plan and you know, we were able to review really
assiduously and at the back end of that, we've you know,
(02:39):
one or two little changes and you know, success happened.
But again, lest they'll just reiterate the fine margins between
success and failure, and at top end sport they are
very fine, and you know, sometimes you know, they culminate
in a bit of a catastrophe because you know, multiple
things don't go for you, which was to before. We
(03:01):
had multiple things go for in twenty five we made
some changes as well, so I think there's got to
be some credit given to the management in the way
that was handled. But yeah, anyway, definitely the outcomes awesome.
Speaker 1 (03:14):
I know what you're saying, and I do remember Scott
Robertson saying after twenty seventeen when he won his first title,
he said, you need a lot of things to go
your way to win a title, a lot of things,
and that's absolutely true. And even you know, getting to
host the final, getting the team that everybody else around
the country wanted to win wasn't going to be the Crusaders.
(03:36):
They wanted to win, They wanted the Chiefs to win.
But just everything coming together and it just gave so
many people so much pleasure because we listened to the
Crusaders in Canterbury. Whichever sport they are unbagged all the.
Speaker 2 (03:50):
Time, well, it's a credit to the organized it's a
credit to Red and Black, both organizations that did a
great job this year, from you know, the logistics component
right through to your captain and leaders on the park.
And it's a great reflection of our whole feed particularly
right there. But a small than Cambriy is and always
(04:12):
has been. There's a great desire to keep this problems
at the forefront and whatever the arena you're in. And yeah,
it's such to be here morning pens Curly here morning mate.
Speaker 3 (04:25):
Are you well?
Speaker 2 (04:26):
I'm great, Thank you, good boy.
Speaker 3 (04:28):
Hey, you talk about ironic sleepy is Christmas as well?
You either love it or you hate it, right, so,
but like coaching or coaches, so you're right. You talked
about the small things and one of the things you've
mentioned a few times is is the is the game
in Fiji with all the cloud coming the cloud cover
(04:49):
came over. But you know, outside of that, other little things,
I guess luck, injuries not quite as bad as last year.
I've been able to be able to put a consistent
sort of team on the park. All those kind of
things just tied in nicely for you, didn't they.
Speaker 2 (05:07):
Yeah, And I'm lots of taking any like, the management
need to take a lot of credit. But the planning
we put into the Fiji trip was as deep and
as wide reaching as I've ever been a part of
a plan because Crusaders have never been the drawer over there,
and it's a difficult place to win for us, and
it has been and we had to change some things
(05:29):
and we got all that but right, but the cloud
coming over was like the icing on the cake, trust
because it was a it was a brutal morning heat
was so yeah, you know the way in which see
up our set piece and getting two late penalties against
the Blues to secure the home final. You know, there's
(05:50):
things that happened during the season that the year before
we just couldn't buy a penalty at times, let alone
getting two in a row in five minutes. But that
takes credit from from our scrummaging, you know, Fretch and
New and Tonight Williams at the back end of the game,
g O Bauer, George Belle, Kadie Taylor, that group of
men along with DP setting it up. So they need
(06:13):
a lot of credit, but you also need the ref
reader see the pitchers. Yeah, you know, yeah, those things were,
you know, in the last minute when the Blues were
attacking us. I think we had something like thirty tackles
in that six minute sequence. Just before full time, the
ball pops out, Christian Leo dives on it. Great, say
(06:34):
we get the ball back, kick the ball out, game over.
Another referee would have penalized Christian Leo if for diving
on the ball next to the ruck, which you can't do.
So like, there's moments like that, As I said that,
we look back on and go, yep, that's we got one.
Lbourne once said to me when we were talking about
(06:55):
the frustration sometimes of being a coach, fifty to fifty
decisions usually end up being fifty fifty. So if you
extrapolate your career over a long period of time, the
ones we missed in twenty four, we probably gotten twenty five,
you know what I mean? So eager.
Speaker 1 (07:13):
Yeah, But the thing is that the Crusaders board and
management had faith in you because some people may not
have had a different franchise. Who knows. We'll never be
able to answer that.
Speaker 2 (07:25):
Would we No, you wouldn't, leslie, But one hundred percent
of correct, I've been through that. We're board obviously didn't
see the vision when I was at the cars and
didn't have patients Crusaders very passionate about their team, and
you know, I knew patients was wearing thin. But within
the inner circle the inn a Sanctum Colin mains for
(07:47):
a genus Gardner grant, your gman, Brett Francis, none of
them bought always at my side, always asking what help
I needed, and they were living every moment with me
like it was. There were moments that it was really tough,
you know, but because they didn't flunch, I was. I
(08:13):
was determined to, you know, do what I could, everything
I could to make it better, and I just couldn't
have a dream result. Because you're twenty four to twenty
five that I guess that he's the precious pens And you.
Speaker 3 (08:29):
Mentioned it the other night during your interview on't accepting
that award. It's not just the blowtorch. Wasn't just on
your wife, Frants, it was on all those men you've
just mentioned as well to to continue to back you.
And you know, in the in the I guess in
the in the face of you know, the public going crazy,
that you know, the media going crazy and all that
sort of carry on for them to just I guess
(08:52):
turn a little bit of a blind eye to that
or absorb it, but just stick with your men. And
I guess you know, for you, mate, you'll be for
you ever thankful for.
Speaker 2 (09:00):
That one hundred eternally grateful. You know. The easy thing
would have been to make a change and they would
have been well within their rights. But the beauty about
the organization and we're getting even better at it now,
there's things that are really integrated. So the board are
invited down they see the work going and CEO columb
(09:24):
Maine Bridge gem Angus Gardener are all over. The conversations
and the meetings that are had on a regular basis,
which make such a pleasure work for because this conversation
is happening all the time, very organic support or advice
going to and fro and am very dynamic and a
(09:48):
solution based way. And at the end of the day,
that's why the organization had so much success. Great people
doing great work. And I'm not trying to blow my
trumpet in that regard that I'm the saying the story.
There's a lot of institutional knowledge and wealth and understanding
on how this place operates and there's there's guardians all
the way through keeping an eye on what's happening. You know,
(10:12):
some of the greats playing wise come and they offer
themselves and they try to provide solutions when things aren't gala.
It's just awesome to be a part of. So going
back to your original, yes, shit year, they were in
a difficult situation as well. But I guess that the
(10:37):
cohesiveness in the interlocking of every department in the way
which it functions people. You know, it's not a lockdown
siege mentality where people are excluded. People were intimately involved
the whole process. They knew going through five verse five
in a season isn't conduced of they having a lot
of success. You know that there was one little bit
(11:01):
of drama that we had to deal with and a
challenging one and no one's fault. Injuries happened and you know,
Fugus birth rutching his achilles at the end of the
NPC just didn't allow them to come back. You know,
we won the last three games. I took up third
back and now we've you know, Grand Tahara rivers with
(11:22):
you know, jobs involvement. Last year, the organization set up
with a great preacher and James White tucked them behind
them ready for opportunity now and so you know that's all,
that's what we do. We had we had some hurdles
as you said there that management who needed to know
were intimately involved with everything, and they were very loyal
(11:43):
and as I said, I'll be terally grateful.
Speaker 1 (11:46):
Well, it is built on here atage, isn't it. And
the givingness even though it's a professional sport. You know,
I look at the Crusaders who went down to the
Special Olympics and yesterday, I think it was all the
doug for you know, just that I think they give
back to the community. We don't quite appreciate how much
they do give back. Apart from on the field, they
(12:07):
do give in a professional environment. They are definitely givers.
Rob and I think you're incredibly modest and understated, but
take everything that comes your way because you've certainly earned
it and earned it the hard way.
Speaker 2 (12:21):
I really appreciate the comment, but the Bulls are unreal
in terms of the community service. They provide that opportunity
to go down to the new center there and be
with the Special Olympics. Was the joy on the boys
faces was as much as anything. There was another group
of us that went to City Mission and set up
(12:42):
the Christmas trees and did some tiding up its pieces
for them. The week before, we're over at Toy Children's
Homes spending. I think we're over there for about four hours,
repairing bikes, weeding, gardening, and that's the whole group of management.
So it's that that's just the crusader and picking the
(13:02):
people that need some support and some help is a
great honor for us. And you know that'll serve a
side of it as something that the young men and
the organization loved to do. They love to get out
and be a part of the community, and I think
that's why the community ultimately loves them.
Speaker 1 (13:18):
Yeah, and there's no doubt about that. Absolutely, And thank
you for picking up the phone this morning. We really
appreciate it. We could not let this moment go without
saying congratulations. We know how hard earned it was in
a variety of ways, but we loved it. We loved
twenty twenty five because we do like winning. There's no
disguising that fact either. But Rob Penny, thank you and
(13:39):
Merry Christmas. And yes, you can rest a little bit
easier although it doesn't, it's not too long before it
starts again.
Speaker 2 (13:47):
What are exciting twenty six we've got, We've got you know,
we've got three games in the in the I guess
the old arena at Addington there and the organization to
tom ninety eight wins at that stadium, so there's hopefully
a really special milestone attained attained at the early part
of the campaign. And then we're moving into Caha and
(14:09):
what an experience that's going to be for everyone. I
think the first game is sold out and.
Speaker 1 (14:15):
You know.
Speaker 2 (14:17):
The boys will prepare well, are in great space mentally
and excited about the competition and looking forward to it
and being able to get our feet on the grass
at Takaha with an indoor stadium right there. That's that's
going to be so special. So Merry Christmas to you, Lisie,
Thanks very much for all your support. You've been awesome
big and look forward to seeing you in the new year.
Speaker 1 (14:39):
Absolutely and have a great Christmas. Thank you, Rob Penny.
For more from News Talks ed B listen live on
air or online, and keep our shows with you wherever
you go with our podcast on iart Radio.
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