Rob Penney – I’m sorry. I got it wrong... maybe. In this column, I’ve in the past gently suggested various characters that may or may not be looking for jobs – Joe Schmidt, Neil Barnes and I’m sure there are others – should take over a Crusaders sidethat looked hapless at times last year.
Maybe I was too hasty to cast aside Penney because this Crusaders side, while not being the finished product, are a vast improvement on last year.
Those cracks appear to have been fixed to an extent – it’s still early in the season, and they did nearly ship 50 points to the Chiefs, but this Crusaders team feels more reminiscent of eras past.
Maybe not the Scott Robertson era but perhaps the Todd Blackadder era of the Crusaders – quality but without the all-consuming success of the former, notably without the titles too. Penney has made the required tweaks from last year when they looked like a clunky mess – and consistency of selections has helped as well as an injury toll that has drastically shrunk.
After five games last year they ranked last in points scored, tries, carries, carry metres, defenders beaten and line breaks. At the same juncture this year they rank in the top two of those categories and, unsurprisingly, sit in the top two on the ladder. On a two-year deal, which is up after this season, and with the long-rumoured succession plan of Tamati Ellison being over, maybe Penney is worth persevering with for at least another campaign into 2026. It’s not quite In Rob Penney We Trust, but there is something there.
Alex "Grizz" Wyllie was the stuff of legend, says Elliott Smith. Photo / Photosport
A question...
Will there ever be another Grizz Wyllie? As a kid growing up in the 1990s in Canterbury – after the Shield era when Wyllie coached the legendary red-and-black team of the 1980s – he was the stuff of legend. The moustache, the gruff exterior and in the mainland – Canterbury Draught ads, one of which showed him wandering around snowy mountain tops in shorts. Sadly, both of those icons of the south – CD and Wyllie – are now gone.
The new Christchurch Stadium is set to open next year. Photo / Nicola Lamb
It’s also a shame he never got to go to the new Christchurch Stadium opening next year, after rightly lambasting the temporary stadium in the city in 2017 as a diabolical place to watch rugby on a cold night.
A suggestion...
Auckland’s diabolical stadium handling should be used as a case study worldwide for how not to operate sports in a functional city. Compare it to Queensland, which got on the wrong track with its preparations for the Brisbane 2032 Olympics and then righted it spectacularly this week by agreeing to demolish the Gabba and build a new venue for the Games.
The new stadium will host the opening and closing ceremonies of the Olympics and the athletics, then be offloaded to cricket and AFL.
The Queensland Premier decreed it at a media event this week and it’s on its way. We lack the decisive leadership to do the same here and continue to muddle with half-baked – and too many – options.
A prediction...
It’s hard not to think that the stadium debacle will never really end in Auckland. This is but another chapter in poor governance.
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