YESTERDAY BROUGHT MORE shifting sands in the southern province.
Not only has David Wallace called it a day, but backs coach Jason Holland and team manager Shaun Payne are also stepping away.
Rob Penney has some rebuilding work on his hands.
In Canterbury one of his strengths was uniting a team which constantly had to put up with players dropping in and out of the side.
“Penney’s had to rely on the younger guys and bring through, he’s done a pretty good job in that regard,” says Richard Knowell, rugby writer with The Press, Christchurch’s leading newspaper.
However, he will have more than a playing squad to reshape, the men who coach them must also be remodeled. Four consecutive provincial titles is not to be sniffed at, in doing that with the black and red hoops Penney has joined an elite group of three; alongside Maurice Trapp and Graham Henry.
As many have suspected, the reason Penney has turned up on the doorstep of Munster is that he has been shunned by a series of Super Rugby franchises, a fact which Knowell describes as ‘a bit of politics behind the scenes.’
That may stem from a disagreement with the NZRU over player availability, something that will continue to trouble him over here with the IRFU player welfare program and the growing constraints on signing non Irish-eligible (NIE) players.
Though a successful and well respected coach, it remains to be seen what style of play Penney can bring to Thomond Park. In New Zealand he is blessed by the presence of some electric backs. Yet these are often thrust upon him so that he can prepare them for the step up to Super XV.
His predominant strength is as a forwards coach, and Knowell believes that his fellow Cantabrian will have a little bit to prove when it comes to options behind the scrum.
“No doubt, he’ll be pretty keen on getting the set-piece right. He’ll probably have to adjust his coaching a bit over there, just because of the wetter ground and that sort of thing.”
Still, the most intriguing factor will be his relationship with Foley. Yesterday, Munster CEO Garret Fitzgerald insisted that the new head coach insisted upon Foley staying on alongside him. That will leave ‘Axel’ as the only surviving coach out of the four who sat at the top table last season.
Penney has always called upon a specialist backs coach to be his assistant and with Holland having vacated the role he now has scope to bring along a man he already knows well.
High performance
Until now his assistant with the south island side has been Tabai Matson, however Knowell believes Penney has been trumpeting Matson’s case for promotion to be head coach at Canterbury.
His former right-hand man is another option, John Haggart moved on from Canterbury in 2009 to join New Zealand’s high performance unit for grooming future All Blacks.
That kind of skill-set could be just what Munster require at this juncture – but if Foley is pushed back from being a contender for the main job into a demotion as secondary forwards coach – the apple cart could be well and truly toppled.
Munster need stability and Foley can bring that. Penney can be a volatile character when things start to get rough, but for Foley and (more importantly) Munster to improve, he must take a step back from instinctively taking charge of the pack and trust his new coaching ticket to do what they do best.
