Penney believes "without a doubt" that Read is All Black captaincy material and describes his style as having a calmness that other players take strength in.
"The role of a genuine leader is to decrease the pressure on others and he does that."
The Canterbury coach was a selector for the national under-19 team when Read's talents started to bloom. He played a big role in getting the Counties product into the Canterbury system.
"He had genuine athleticism. He did a sub-5s standing 40m, he was really quick over 10m. He was really, really athletic but he was bit of a lightweight," Penney said, revealing that the teenage Read couldn't nudge the scales past the 90kg mark. He's now nudging 110kg.
"But he had a really good bone structure that we knew would fill out into a really robust, physical man. Given his athleticism and general skill set, we thought he was pretty gifted from the word go."
The perfect Canterbury-type player. Even though Read is a proud Counties product, he could see the advantages of getting into a system that has had more success in refining talent than any other.
"He wasn't going to be someone that was going to be an overnight success because he needed the physical development and a lot of technical help as well, but he had the raw talent and the raw physicality that we knew, given time, could be nurtured and developed into something pretty special."
One sport's gain was another's loss. It might be the great arenas of world rugby that Read now graces, but it was Blackridge Rd where he first made his mark as a player of prodigious talent.
At Karaka Cricket Club they still lament the one that got away.
"It's only my opinion," says Todd McDonald, premier club captain when Read forced his way into the side as a 15-year-old top-order batsman, "but I don't think it's going too far to say he would have made the Black Caps."
McDonald says that while Read marked himself out as a batsman of extraordinary talent, it was the way he fitted into the team at such a young age that blew him away. "Of all the kids that came through the years I was playing there, he was the one that obviously settled into the senior environment the best.
"He had something about him, even though he was so much younger than everyone else his maturity and temperament made him slot in so easily.
"It was instantly clear the ability he had, and by the time he was 16 he was the best batsman we had at the club."
His teammates knew he was good at rugby, because some of them had connections to the winter sport themselves. McDonald says Read never talked about his rugby achievements, or his cricket ones for that matter.
Even now, it can be painstaking trying to get Read to talk about himself. Self-analysis is something he'd rather share only with his coaches.
It might have been a relief to see Read striding into the room at Wednesday's press call after the antics of the Williams twins, but it was not a forum for enlightenment.
"It's great to be playing in these sorts of atmospheres," Read said. "You just want to be putting your best foot forward and playing your best game. If you can be doing that and 14 other guys, or 22 guys, are doing that, we're going to be going pretty close to winning this thing.
"It's an awesome opportunity."
While he's an amiable bloke, there's an intensity to Read that is evident in his piercing stare. It's far from the full picture, though, says Penney.
"He's got a humorous side, but he is driven," he says. "He knows where he wants to get to, but in an unassuming, uncomplex way, which makes life easy for those around him.
"But s*** yeah, he likes a laugh and to get amongst it with the best of them."
