Ya Earls said in The Examiner that he has them developing their own plays too, which is very interesting. I have always thought that player input is huge when it comes to developing game plans, to really buy into it. Interesting to note that the backs are carrying more bulk and Earls also said they are running the bejaysus out of them for fitness.Originally Posted by dropkick
New season, come at me!
Oh deer me. Anyone know if he has a name? Stuie the Stag?
Boss Penney builds bonds in great outdoors
By Simon Lewis
Friday, August 24, 2012
Pre-season is all about building for the new campaign but Munster’s players have been taking the concept literally after pitching their tents in Tralee earlier this month.
Munster put the finishing touches to their pre-season preparations in Cork tonight when London Irish visit Musgrave Park (7pm) ahead of the province’s September 1 RaboDirect Pro12 opener at Edinburgh.
Yet getting to this point involved some team-building of a different kind when Munster’s newly arrived head coach Rob Penney took the players on a training camp in Kerry and told them to erect their own accommodation.
"We put the tents up and got soaked," Penney explained.
"We stayed in tents in Tralee Rugby Club and had some barbecues.
"Their mouths dropped when they saw the tents. They thought we were kidding but it’s summertime in Ireland, so we had to do some camping.
"The boys sung some songs. I said to the boys I was being selfish about it, that ‘it’s about me getting to know you outside of a rugby environment’. And credit to the lads, they embraced it and did a great job."
New Zealander Penney also challenged his squad to a cooking competition, with six teams attempting to win Munster’s very own version of Masterchef, barbecue-style, and surprising their new boss in the process. "We had a cooking competition and they were fantastic on the barbecues, did a marvellous job," Penney said.
"The were split into teams and they all had to do an entree, a main and a dessert. They see it on TV all the time, it was a bit of reality TV."
Penney only revealed the coaching team received zero points for their efforts but it is understood Ronan O’Gara’s steaks proved the culinary highlight, alongside Peter Stringer’s wholemeal pancakes.
Needless to say, the new coach will be looking for a different recipe for success this evening.
Irish Examiner
4 Feb 2011 - Gilmore on the General Election
"Frankfurts way or Labours way."
28 Feb 2012 - Gilmore on a yes vote for the fiscal treaty
"A vote for economic stability and a vote for economic recovery."
I´d say it was brilliant fun......
except for the snoring...
He was as lame as a duck. Not the metaphorical lame duck either, but a real duck that was actually lame. Maybe from stepping on a land mine or something.
I would reckon Paulie's quiet as the grave but Stringer's like someone chainsawing a donkey in half. It's always the ones you least expect.
Those wholemeal pancakes sound good, mind.
Vorsprung durch Pfennig.
Penney is a shrewd operator. That is a serious team bonding exercise. Fair play.
Pictures of the tent pitching and BBQ here
Might be better described as camping photos instead of camp photos......
He was as lame as a duck. Not the metaphorical lame duck either, but a real duck that was actually lame. Maybe from stepping on a land mine or something.
Poor old Oscar took on Donners.
Otaga Daily Times 2/5/2012
Taz-Where did you get that information as I have seen nowhere that he(Penney) was ruled out?
Editor - The writer stands by the Penney information.
Otaga Daily Times 3/5/2012
Editor-- This article originally said Rob Penney had missed out on the Munster coaching job. That information was incorrect.
Looks like he went for a 2-footed sliding tackle with studs showing, the dirtyfecker. Fair play to Donnacha, if he was Christiano Ronaldo he'd have jumped 6 foot in the air howling like an Soprano and then rolled the length of the pitch 3 times clutching his knee looking for a penalty.Poor old Oscar took on Donners.
When things go wrong, blame McGahan
Paulie putting the fear of god into the grass to make it grow faster
When things go wrong, blame McGahan
The Irish Times - Saturday, August 25, 2012
Munster expectations fuel for a driven Kiwi
Rob Penney: "I don't know it all and I'm not satisfied with where I am as a coach. I'm still trying to learn and grow and develop, so I'm excited about the opportunity here and learning to coach in a new competition."
GERRY THORNLEY gets an insight into what makes Munster’s new head coach tick as he begins the challenge of returning his charges to the glory days
In the desire to see indigenous coaches make more of an impact, there was merit in wanting Anthony Foley to assume the role of Munster head coach in succession to Tony McGahan. Instead, the appointment of Rob Penney, along with Mark Anscombe at Ulster, means three of the Irish provinces are being coached by Kiwis.
However, bearing in mind the huge impact Joe Schmidt has had at Leinster (the groundwork having been laid by Michael Cheika), not having been a head coach of a Super 15 franchise doesn’t necessarily prevent an Irish province from striking gold when digging a little deeper.
Like Cheika and Schmidt, Penney may not be especially high-profile outside his native land, but like Schmidt especially he’s relatively experienced nonetheless, having been assistant coach with both the Crusaders’ Super 12-winning team of 2005 as well as three years as assistant coach and six years as head coach of the Canterbury provincial side. That culminated in four successive ITM Cups, or provincial titles, before this summer’s IRB Junior World Championships with the New Zealand under-20 side.
Ask around about Penney in New Zealand during Ireland’s tour in June and it’s clear that he is held in very high esteem. He has a reputation for being a very well-planned and organised coach, particularly adept at developing players, and ultra-positive in outlook. Attempts to invoke positive thoughts and goals from players at Munster team meetings were initially met with embarrassed silence but, encouraged by Penney’s patience, the players have begun to speak up.
Spend some time in his company and his positive outlook is infectious. Genuine and passionate, he comes to Munster an ambitious and hungry coach. “I do have high expectations of myself,” he admits. “Coming through Canterbury the expectations are high and that fits with me. I am driven, but my driver is seeing young blokes achieve their aims, when a young guy goes from here to here as a player; achieves something that they may not have thought was possible. Gets the green Irish jersey; makes the British and Irish Lions. That is what really dives me.
“Organisationally I’m employed to do a job for Munster obviously and the expectations and the passion that go with that are palpable, which I love. That’s just part of who I am and I really enjoy that side of it. It spins my wheels and it makes me aspire to be a better coach all the time. I don’t know it all and I’m not satisfied with where I am as a coach. I’m still trying to learn and grow and develop, so I’m excited about the opportunity here and learning to coach in a new competition. Hopefully I can add something and it can add something to me,” he says, with almost disarming candour.
He admits he would have loved to coach one of New Zealand’s Super franchises but is philosophical about that and hugely grateful for the opportunity to “hopefully create something that Munster people will be really proud of”. Penney is equally philosophical about a distinguished playing career that saw him play a century of games and captain his native Canterbury, without ever playing for New Zealand despite a few All Blacks’ trials, primarily because his career coincided with first Wayne Shelford and then Zinzan Brooke as well as backrowers such as Alan Whetton.
“I had a lot of satisfaction. I wasn’t the most gifted individual and I suppose I’ve got a bit of a blue-collar attitude to life. I don’t mind at all mucking in and getting my hands dirty, and that’s sort of the way I played. And I played in some great eras. Probably the All Black team of that time was the best in history.”
Of his 100-plus games for Canterbury, he recalls a 1994 tour to the UK where they came through nine games in 21 days unbeaten. “The amateur days had some special components to them; relationships were built and life-long friendships. I’m not saying the professional doesn’t but it’s just slightly different.”
The game has changed, he concedes: “There’s a great quote: ‘People don’t care how much you know until they know how much you care’. And I think there was a transition when the game went pro, that you had to become a machine, but it’s still a game for kids, a game that if you don’t love it, you shouldn’t be playing it, because it’s tough, it’s f**king tough. And that’s one of the things I used to love about it, I used to love the physical nature of the game, smashing people and getting smashed.
“Because it goes pro that doesn’t change, and your ability to manage your players to maximise their output, to help their growth and development in a game where they’re going through the equivalent of a small car crash every weekend, is challenging. But if they know you care about them, and they know you generally want their growth and development, I think the benefits and the spin-offs in terms of your relationship are far greater. They’re professional athletes but they still have some of the same vulnerabilities about their self-belief and abilities, and just because you get a pay check doesn’t change that. It’s still a game and you’ve still got to love it.”
Ask him who the biggest influences have been on his career and he says it was more the players he’s coached than the coaches who coached him, although he also describes one of his former coaches Wayne Smith, assistant coach to the All Blacks’ World Cup winners who has since guided the Chiefs to their first Super title, as outstanding.
“He is one of the greatest coaches – he probably won’t be fully appreciated how good he was until he’s finished. And I worked with Ozzie McClane and then I worked with Tabai Matson who’s a young, developing coach but exceptional quality. I’ve been fortunate to work with a lot of good rugby brains.”
If, in rugby terms, Munster were twinned with any New Zealand province/Super franchise, it would assuredly be Canterbury – and vice versa. That cultural fit sits well with Penney. “In both Canterbury and Munster there is a blue-ish tinge to the collar, and the Munster people keep telling me they’ve got chips on their shoulders and they like it that way. If I came in to work in a polka-dot tie and a pink shirt that’s probably not Munster, and if I was coming into an organisation that had that philosophy it probably would be difficult for me to transition. As I said, I’m a blue-collar worker.”
This manifests itself in a desire to be a hands-on, training-ground coach in a tracksuit more than a director of rugby, per se, in a suit. This is more what Munster need anyway. Very much the driving force in Irish rugby at the turn of the millennium, Munster are not the force of old and while Penney may well benefit from some of the transitional work undertaken by Tony McGahan, there’s little doubt they’re still going through their most difficult transitional phase of the professional era. The main caveat to all this is that, being Munster, they’re not allowed go through a transitional phase. Hence, despite reaching the knock-out stages of both the Heineken Cup and the Pro12, last season was generally regarded as a failure. Again though, being a Kiwi from Canterbury has readied him.
“That expectation sparks me up. It doesn’t intimidate me. It fuels the fire. The team has gone through massive transition. A lot of world-class players, a lot of intellectual property moved away from the playing staff and you can’t replace that overnight. All I want this group to do without adding more pressure than we’ve got, is to play as well as they can and represent the jersey with the pride and passion that those gentlemen who left did. And if we do that then we’ll be on the right track, and let’s see if we can grow together. But the expectations of the public need to be appeased as well, and that’s by performance.” The challenge of, like most Kiwis, uprooting home, won’t faze him. Before launching his career with Canterbury, as a 21-year-old he spent a year with Lyon, in 1984-1985, who were then in the ProD2. “It was a long time ago. It was total immersion and there was no internet. It took up to 12 days to get from New Zealand to France and vice versa, so it was a rude awakening for a young Kiwi boy. It was a great experience though.”
He also played for a year with Treviso.
This latest venture has meant uprooting home with Erin and their three sons. “Her grandfather was born in Derry, so she has an Irish connection, and we have three sons. Josh (20) is doing an apprenticeship in New Zealand, while Alex (16) and Cameron (14) are attending Christian Brothers on Monday,” he smiles with evident pride.
Coaching is not exactly replete with security, and wouldn’t be possible without an understanding family. “It’s a lifestyle, it’s not a job. You’ve got to put your heart and soul into it and be totally committed, and my family is amazing. My wife has been with me well before I started. We met when we were 15 and we’ve sort of been together ever since. She’s been through my playing career and coaching stints, and the rollercoaster that represents. And for the boys to uproot themselves at their age and come into a foreign environment, I just admire their courage so much.”
Rest of the article here
4 Feb 2011 - Gilmore on the General Election
"Frankfurts way or Labours way."
28 Feb 2012 - Gilmore on a yes vote for the fiscal treaty
"A vote for economic stability and a vote for economic recovery."
Better upgrade the lawnmower...Paulie putting the fear of god into the grass to make it grow faster
Vorsprung durch Pfennig.
I think that's actually his grass grow slower face. He's tired of cutting the grass, so as seen here, he's having a quiet word with it to take it's time growing. Or he'll be rightly pissed off.Paulie putting the fear of god into the grass to make it grow faster
I am the million man.
Otaga Daily Times 2/5/2012
Taz-Where did you get that information as I have seen nowhere that he(Penney) was ruled out?
Editor - The writer stands by the Penney information.
Otaga Daily Times 3/5/2012
Editor-- This article originally said Rob Penney had missed out on the Munster coaching job. That information was incorrect.
Now I found out something interesting about Penney this morning and I like it.
He goes out in his own time watching club games involving players contracted,he gave a few lads a shock at the weekend when they spotted him standing on the sideline.
Otaga Daily Times 2/5/2012
Taz-Where did you get that information as I have seen nowhere that he(Penney) was ruled out?
Editor - The writer stands by the Penney information.
Otaga Daily Times 3/5/2012
Editor-- This article originally said Rob Penney had missed out on the Munster coaching job. That information was incorrect.
no slacking so!
Mumha Abu
Very un-Trappatoni-esqueNow I found out something interesting about Penney this morning and I like it.
He goes out in his own time watching club games involving players contracted,he gave a few lads a shock at the weekend when they spotted him standing on the sideline
I realised I was dyslexic when I went to a toga party dressed as a goat
Just a subtle reminder to be on their toes in case The Penney drops... by.
Céard a ceapfá, Jerry?
Paul O'Connell can get toothpaste out of an onion. Fact.
Jesus it feels great to actually trust the coach again
What a difference a few weeks make! Not a great fortnight for Penney. 2 controversial selections and 2 poor performances and heavy defeats. No form going into a crucial 2 weeks of rugby. Perhaps, expectations have been raised too high early on and now he is paying for that.
However I think that if there was one message I'd personally like him to get, it is that he will be given time but Munster is a team in itself and not a nuturing province for the Irish team. The players have to earn the right to play in a Munster jersey and not have it granted to them because of a favourable position within the IRFU/INTL team hierarchy. Penney appears a bit too keen to help out the INTL mgmt (maybe this was an important message given to him during his interviews/appointment). This has got to stop. He needs to do what is best for Munster.
Insanity: doing the same thing over and over again (like picking Gordon D'Arcy) and expecting different results.
Albert Einstein
As much as I would like that to be the case in reality Penneys hands are tied. Munster are part of the IRFU and they pay his and the players wages. The IRFU take the players away from Penney and also influence who he picks, in what position and when (specifically with centrally contracted players). I would love for Penney to have a free hand but that ain't going to happen.
\"God gave me the talent but the forwards gave me the ball\" - Jannie De Beer
\"I hesitate to use words like spiritual or religious, but to see what rugby means to Munster people is very moving\" Shaun Payne
I look back on 2008 at the Millennium Stadium as the highlight of my career because, although being capped by New Zealand and playing for the All Blacks was fantastic, this was special. - Doug Howlett
At times, his game plan is working, far better movement of the ball, a lot better vision for players and support runners, leading to some nice tries. He has a tough jobs we've lost our grizzle, cuteness and the pack that wore down opposition for years. Penny is working with a very young team that can develop into a much more talented team than we've ever had. However, the expectation of the great unwashed is a HEC every year. I think it could take a year or 2 before we see the young guys mature and Munster become a force again, 6 weeks into the rebirth, folks are already impatient.
Dont need reason, dont need rhyme,
Aint nothin I would rather do,
Goin down, party time,
My friends are gonna be there too
I'm on a Highway to Hell ...
Anyone remember McGahan's first game against Leinster as head coach? Not exactly the best indicator of what was to come.
The improvement in the set up is clear. A clear selection issue around 10/12, but even out of today's game i'm taking positive things. The main one for me is that there is a clear jump in our skill levels. Our patterns of play are so much better, an outhalf to take proper advantage of that and we'll have a great year.
"There are probably more annoying things than being hectored about African development by a wealthy Irish rock star in a cowboy hat, but I can't think of one at the moment"
Paul Theroux
I think this is the main issue as well. There's some great talent coming through in the forwards. There are plenty of great options in the back 3. Scrum half I think still remains an issue with Murray being the best option.
The positive I would take is there was a clear purpose from Downeys signing; to have a decent crash ball option in Mid field which munster really have needed and he has done exactly what we all expected so far. So I can only imagine that the Cl earls mid field is purely experimental. But for the love of god, please don't start ROG for the next game
\" well Declan how does it feel to be the Architect of one of the greatest sporting achievements in Irish history?\"
\" Well I dont know about architect really...I mean players win matches, sure, i had nothing to do wiut it really\"
I'm still giving him the benefit of the doubt that he was testing our backup options. They were Rabo games. Hurts to lose them but more importantly we have learned what definitely doesn't work. I'm reserving my judgement until the starting team is picked for Racing. I have faith we will see Keatley 10 and Downey 12.
But that doesn't make sense in this instance. OK, RoG may be centrally contracted but he's clearly so far off the pace now as to be a major liability to any team he starts with (someone mentioned D'Arcy - same unfortunately). Both Keatley and Downey may not be centrally contracted players, but they sure are good enough to be. Downey (when started...) has proved a revelation; Ireland haven't had a player like that since Hendo; why not try it again?
Keats 2nite (for his 20 minute cameo...) was right on the button, electric in everything he did - playmaking, passing, kicking (placed and from hand) and tackling. He was the deal, now we need to use him.
I hope you're right.
10 and 12 at the end was working; wasn't earlier. End of... (or am I presuming too much...?).
Centrally contracted players rested after the summer tour, eased backed into the Pro12 and the aim for the IRFU is to have them match fit and up to speed for the Internationals. The IRFU pay these guys serious money and it doesn't look good to be paying players 6 figure salaries and not having them play. Depending on the cycle of RWC or how much influence the national coach wants the provincial coach may be restricted by when has them training (national squad camps), when they can play (mandatory rest periods) or what position they play (Paddy Wallace at 10 in Ulster, Donnacha Ryan at 6 last season were two instructed by Kidney for certain games).
\"God gave me the talent but the forwards gave me the ball\" - Jannie De Beer
\"I hesitate to use words like spiritual or religious, but to see what rugby means to Munster people is very moving\" Shaun Payne
I look back on 2008 at the Millennium Stadium as the highlight of my career because, although being capped by New Zealand and playing for the All Blacks was fantastic, this was special. - Doug Howlett
We looked awesome at the end. I know the Leinster team was well weakened but I dont think it would have made a difference. We wanted the ball. We didn't look scared like we did earlier. Keatley takes the ball hard to the line and when he sees that he has fixed there 10 and 12 spins it deep to the second wave runner in the FB channel. Beautiful to watch. And if that's not working, give it to Downey and let him smash them. Two fantastic options. ROG tried the taking the ball up and hitting the 2nd wave but no-one was buying it, and we got bundled into touch.
In Penney we trust!!!
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