'Not acceptable': Rob Penney reacts to ill-discipline against Highlanders

Crusaders head coach Rob Penney has labelled his side’s ill-discipline as “not acceptable”, after their 29-18 victory over South Island rivals, the Highlanders.

All Blacks hooker Codie Taylor was sent to the bin during the first half, while Finlay Brewis and Chay Fihaki also spent ten minutes on the sideline.

Australian referee Jordan Way didn’t hesitate to penalise the teams for high contact, which resulted in the yellow cards for both Fihaki and Brewis.

“It’s the nature of the game at the moment, isn’t it? You get a bit high and you tackle, you’re in trouble, but we’ll certainly be focusing on it,” Penney said.

“But it’s not acceptable. 30 minutes down to 14, it takes its toll. It’s an area of concern, but it’s not unfixable.”

But to go down to 14 players on multiple occasions, plus losing your captain to injury during the first half, the 61-year-old Crusaders head coach is pleased with the way his side adjusted.

“Very satisfied and it was really important week for us this week to get the week right, so we can flow into the game today, beautifully led by David, Will, Ethan Blackadder, and Codie, and we got to the back end in good shape.

“And today we were able to execute, we weren’t as accurate as we want to be. But it’s a step in the right direction, and certainly with our preparation and the way we approached the week, we’ve got the rewards at the back end because of the work that went in earlier.

“And let’s see if we can rinse and repeat that a few times, and we’ll be dangerous.”

Despite some ill-discipline throughout the 80 minutes All Blacks and Crusaders fullback Will Jordan described his team’s performance against the Highlanders as “back to our DNA”.

The Crusaders were much improved with the ball in hand compared to the week before against the Blues, where the Auckland-based Super Rugby franchise stopped any front-foot ball or momentum that the Crusaders had.

Jordan’s performance, alongside Crusaders debutant Johnny Lee, was a huge part of why the home side got one up over their rivals.

The 54-Test All Black also spoke to media post-match in Christchurch, saying that at halftime, the messaging was clear.

“First half, we were our own worst enemy a little bit, making some errors, and we had opportunities, and obviously the cards,” Jordan said.

“So I thought in the second half, like real simple messages, simple things done well and back to our DNA around, looking to squeeze them well, and i’m pretty happy to come on and make a big impact.”

Jordan echoes Penney’s thoughts earlier on the topic of their effort, saying watching his team go at it for 80 minutes gives him a lot of pride.

“Yeah, hugely, like one thing that gives me a huge amount of pride playing for this team is as a full back, you run them behind, and you see the efforts and intensity of collisions that go on.

“So I felt, certainly in that last 15-20 minutes, there’s a lot of that was well led by Ethan Blackadder in particular. So it was good step in the right direction.”