{"id":409776,"date":"2026-01-13T08:17:17","date_gmt":"2026-01-13T08:17:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/409776\/"},"modified":"2026-01-13T08:17:17","modified_gmt":"2026-01-13T08:17:17","slug":"crusaders-ceo-talks-big-2026-moves-revisits-call-to-back-rob-penney","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/409776\/","title":{"rendered":"Crusaders CEO talks big 2026 moves, revisits call to back Rob Penney"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

The Crusaders<\/a> enter 2026 once again as reigning champions, with minimal but significant talent turnover and a brand-new stadium set to welcome them come April. One month out from the first game of the season, the club\u2019s CEO has shared his thoughts on the coming campaign.<\/p>\n

Colin Mansbridge has been the Crusaders\u2019 CEO since 2018, overseeing much of the club\u2019s most successful era and all the moving pieces that have come with it. In 2024, when the club dropped its historic title run and missed the playoffs entirely, a postseason review posed some big questions while the outside noise demanded change.<\/p>\n

Rob Penney was fresh into the head coach role, succeeding Scott Robertson<\/a>, who had claimed all but one of the titles available to him in his seven-year stint with the team, and Penney\u2019s Super Rugby record had plenty of fans doubting his ability to extend his predecessor\u2019s dynasty.<\/p>\n

But as Mansbridge reflected with long-time commentator Tony Johnson on Monday, there was never any great deal of doubt over Penney\u2019s future at the club.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt wasn\u2019t that hard of a decision to make in the end,\u201d Mansbridge told Sport Nation.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen you look at what the shed was like, what the players were talking about, how the coaches were behaving together and how close the results were.<\/p>\n

\u201cFor others, it was quite challenging. When you go through and have a good look, and you were thoughtful, rational, and analytical about all of the stuff that was on the table, it wasn\u2019t actually that hard of decision.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut we\u2019re really pleased for him and the other coaches. I think they did a really, really good job last year, so we\u2019re really stoked for them.\u201d<\/p>\n

Fixture<\/p>\n

Super Rugby Pacific<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Highlanders <\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Crusaders <\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

The faith of the club\u2019s decision-makers was rewarded with 2025\u2019s return to the top of the Super Rugby mountain-top. More silverware is on the cards in 2026 with the return of All Blacks<\/a> powerhouse Leicester<\/a> Fainga\u2019anuku after two seasons in the Top 14. Mansbridge said the fans weren\u2019t the only ones excited to have the Tongan-born bruiser back in Christchurch.<\/p>\n

\u201cDoesn\u2019t he look excited, himself? He turns up with this humongous smile on his face. And even if he\u2019s running and bumping players off, and fending, he\u2019s smiling all the way through it. He\u2019s an infectious personality.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe\u2019ll be good for us both inside the environment and across the wider Crusaders whanau. I think the fans and members will be really, really excited to watch him play some footy this year.\u201d<\/p>\n

On the flip side of the roster coin, the Crusaders will be without All Blacks captain Scott Barrett<\/a> for an as-yet unknown period of time, with the 32-year-old taking a step back from the game to recharge.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ll hope to see him when he\u2019s feeling rested and hungry,\u201d Mansbridge said of Barrett, adding that he was working on a timeline for return with coach Penney.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe good thing about Scooter is he is such an amazing professional; when he does turn it up, it\u2019ll take him about five minutes to be at 100 per cent. That\u2019s the sort of guy he is.\u201d<\/p>\n

Other figures missing from the 2026 Crusaders season include lock Quinten Strange<\/a> (Urayasu D-Rocks) and Ioane Moananu<\/a> (Waratahs). While Strange has taken the familiar career path of grinding away in Super Rugby before Japan<\/a> Rugby League One comes calling, Moananu\u2019s departure, at just 24 years of age and fresh off something of a breakthrough season, is a different story.<\/p>\n

The Counties Manukau<\/a> product was left out in the cold by Kiwi Super Rugby clubs despite his game-breaking form in red and black in 2025. As Mansbridge confirmed, it wasn\u2019t for a lack of talent, nor character.<\/p>\n

\u201cHis contribution, on and off the field, in this environment last year was really great. I know if the coaches could\u2019ve kept him, they would have. But when you\u2019ve got the roster such as we have, we just ran out of room for the guy.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou\u2019d have him back in a heartbeat in terms of character and personality, so it was sad to see him go. I am surprised he wasn\u2019t able to be picked up somewhere else (in New Zealand).<\/p>\n

\u201cWe really loved the guy, and personally, I really enjoyed Ioane\u2019s company. He\u2019s a wonderful young man and worked his butt off. Sad to see him go, but I\u2019m also really pleased for him. I reckon he\u2019ll do well there (at the Waratahs) and I reckon they\u2019ll do well with his enthusiasm and he\u2019ll be a little bit more confident than when he first turned up here as a very shy kid.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Crusaders enter 2026 once again as reigning champions, with minimal but significant talent turnover and a brand-new…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":409777,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[567],"tags":[64,63,760,85],"class_list":{"0":"post-409776","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-rugby","8":"tag-au","9":"tag-australia","10":"tag-rugby","11":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/409776","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=409776"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/409776\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/409777"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=409776"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=409776"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=409776"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}