The NSW Waratahs have axed head coach Rob Penney, effective immediately.<\/p>\n
The board's decision was made after consultation with chief executive Paul Doorn and the high-performance committee following five consecutive defeats, three of which were record losses, and on the back of last night's 46-12 thumping at the hands of the Queensland Reds.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
"The decision to part ways with Penney was not taken lightly," Doorn said in a Waratahs statement. "Being the coach of the NSW Waratahs is one of the most high-profile and high-pressure roles in Australian rugby.<\/p>\n
"Rob is extremely professional and has put a great deal of effort into the role. However, the on-field performances this season have not met expectations and we feel that, in the best interests of the Waratahs, now is the time to make a change.<\/p>\n
"Waratahs assistant coaches Jason Gilmore and Chris Whitaker have been named as co-interim head coaches for the remainder of the 2021 season.<\/p>\n
Doorn thanked Penney for his involvement in developing young talent at the club, citing 'many of whom will become household names for the Waratahs in the future'. <\/p>\n
"His commitment and concern for the players through a disruptive season and amid trying circumstances is testament to his character and we wish him and his family all the best for the future," Doorn said.<\/p>\n
Former Waratahs and Wallabies winger Drew Mitchell was critical of the decision on social media.<\/p>\n
"The coach was never the biggest issue," he tweeted.<\/p>\n
https:\/\/twitter.com\/drew_mitchell\/status\/1376153283614494721<\/a><\/p>\n "Just a case of making a decision to make it look like something is being done imo [in my opinion]"<\/p>\n The Waratahs will begin the Gilmore\/Whitaker regime on Friday with a match against the Brumbies – who inflicted a record 61-10 defeat on NSW when they met in February<\/a>.<\/p>\n For a daily dose of the best of the breaking news and exclusive content from Wide World of Sports, subscribe to our newsletter by<\/strong><\/em> clicking here!<\/strong><\/em><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" The NSW Waratahs have axed head coach Rob Penney, effective immediately. The board's decision was made after consultation with chief executive Paul Doorn and the […]<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/51031"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=51031"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/51031\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":51033,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/51031\/revisions\/51033"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=51031"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=51031"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=51031"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}