‘Crusaders didn’t want a nuclear bomb, they wanted a ripple’

Newly appointed Crusaders boss Rob Penney can’t wait to pick up the thread back home in New Zealand. It was 2012 when he first packed his bags to embark on what became an 11-year adventure taking him to Ireland, Japan, Australia, and back to Japan again.

It was in Cape Town this past week when RugbyPass caught up with him to chew the fat regarding his overseas coaching experiences and the prospect of returning to daily life in a transformed Christchurch is something that fills him with great enthusiasm.

Penney was there in 2011 when the grand old city was destroyed by an earthquake. He and his family got lucky. “We got some damage around the house. Like, it was very frightening at the time, the rattles, the quakes were a bit of a revelation around how fragile things can be,” he recalled, going on to outline his excitement at now getting to work there again at the age of 59.

We gave U20 New Zealand rugby players cameras and let them do whatever they want | Fuel Me

We gave U20 New Zealand rugby players cameras and let them do whatever they want | Fuel Me

“It has taken time, but it is a beautiful city now and it is going to get better,” he said. “Once the new stadium is built in the next couple of years and the swimming complex that they have got there is intertwined with the fabric of the central city, it is going to be a beautiful city. It will be something that we can all be really proud of.

“The cathedral has been a centre pivot point for Christchurch for such a long time and that is being rebuilt thankfully, and there is a whole lot of new stuff that has kept the essence of the traditional arts centre/museum, that quarter down the end which is all very old Christchurch, they have rebuilt the river waterfront on central Christchurch which is a fantastic hub for any tourist and then we just need a couple of big marquee projects to be completed.”

A well-worked team try sees Japan extend their lead over Wales ?#WorldRugbyU20s | @JRFURugby pic.twitter.com/ububSMszZC

— World Rugby (@WorldRugby) June 29, 2023

A very different work in progress was the reason why Penney sat down with RugbyPass in a hotel lobby in South Africa. The pandemic lockdown and changes to the World Rugby eligibility rules created headaches for youths rugby in Japan that will only be solved over a far longer period of time than the duration of the Junior World Championship that the Kiwi coach is at the helm of the U20s for.

He has done this tournament before, taking charge of the Baby Blacks that reached the 2012 final at Newlands versus the Junior Springboks, but coming back as the Japanese boss in 2023 has been an entirely different situation, one that has so far resulted in pool defeats to France and Wales.

“We have got boys that are in their second year of varsity that have basically been locked down for three years so this is their first experience,” he explained about the calibre of the young players he is coaching. “We managed to get a wee tour…