As I survey the Super Rugby Pacific quarterfinalists, I can’t help but think of Chris Boyd.

When news broke that the Hurricanes were moving Boyd on as head coach broke, he was asked to reflect on his years at the helm.

Finalists in 2015, Boyd’s Hurricanes won their first – and only – Super Rugby title the following season.

Boyd was nothing if not honest in his four years at the helm and consummate media performer.

As an aside, given his long association with John Plumtree, where Boyd often acted as the assistant, there were those opined that it was the former who was actually Hurricanes head coach in that era and the latter simply the front man.

I never gave that any credence, but there’s no doubt Boyd was better in front of the microphones and cameras.

Plumtree, in an effort to appear affable, liked to use your name when responding to questions. In my case, he thought my name was John and addressed me as such frequently.
It kept you humble, if nothing else.

I was interested to learn, from a source close to the All Blacks, that when Plumtree ascended to an assistant’s role with that team, that it wasn’t uncommon for him to call players by the wrong name.

A couple of examples were cited by the source, but I won’t divulge them now.
Back to Boyd.

His theory was that, as good as the Hurricanes were in 2015 and 2016, they owed their success to the fact that, by their own high standards, the Crusaders were poor.

Sure, it was great that the Hurricanes were in successive home grand finals. But, if they were honest with themselves, Boyd said, it was partly thanks to the Crusaders.

I feel a bit the same way now. The Hurricanes of 2024 are the best of a bad lot so far.

It’s really not been a competition of great quality and the finals, at least in the first week, hardly leap out as being compelling contests.

I’ve been a bit disappointed in the Chiefs and if there is a team that I am impressed by, it’s the Blues.

Vern Cotter has added an edge to that outfit that’s been missing and I regard them as title favourites from here.

But whoever wins, to go back to Boyd, I think the story of 2024 is the Crusaders.

Dismal would be a reasonable word to describe their campaign.

I just wonder what their board was expecting when they hired Rob Penney as head coach?

Success and Penney have been strangers for 10 or 15 years now and the Crusaders’ leadership might be disappointed by the team’s performances this season, but they shouldn’t be shocked.

If this was seen as a bridging season between Scott Robertson’s tenure and the current assistants who’ll presumably succeed Penney at some point, then I can see some value in this exercise.

After all, it was Penney who identified and helped develop Robertson into the coach we know today.

I see the Crusaders are now undertaking an independent review of the 2024 campaign – which they’re at pains to point out is an annual matter of course – and that chief executive Colin Mansbridge won’t guarantee that Penney sees out the remaining year of his two-year contract.

The fact he was only ever signed for that long does lead me to suspect Penney was never a man the franchise had huge confidence in, given how big a hole was left by Robertson and key players Sam Whitelock and Richie Mo’unga. We’ll see.

But coaches don’t appoint themselves and it’s all very well to review how Penney went this season and whether the players were happy or unhappy.

But who’s reviewing the board? Who’s running their eye over their appointment process? Are any of them in danger of the sack?

Ironically, this isn’t the first time Penney’s been down this sort of road.

I remember then-Canterbury chief executive Hamish Riach appearing very lukewarm about wanting Penney to continue as head coach, back in 2008.

In fact, the first question I asked Riach in the Canterbury dressing room, after they’d beaten Welington 7-6 in that year’s NPC final, was would Penney be retained?

He could hardly sack him at that point, no matter how much he might’ve liked to.

Penney then led the team to NPC titles in 2009, 2010 and 2011 before handing the reins to assistants Tabai Matson and Robertson.

So I wouldn’t be astonished if the Crusaders allowed Penney to see out his contract now, nor for the team to enjoy title-winning success again in 2025.

They are Super Rugby’s benchmark after all and will always be.

Good on the team that wins the 2024 competition but, if I remember this season for anything, it’ll be the fact that the Crusaders were a shambles and that the eventual victors owed a lot of their success to that.