Penny eager to play his way up the ladder with Leinster and Ireland
WAITING GAME: Scott Penny of Leinster shakes hands with young supporters after his side's victory in the United Rugby Championship match between Leinster and Munster at the Aviva Stadium in Dublin. Pic: Tyler Miller/Sportsfile
So, Jacques Nienaber has finally entered the building that is Leinster’s UCD base and the presumption is that the World Cup-winning coach will add some hard-nosed South African granite to a side that has fallen agonisingly short of silverware four times in two seasons.
It’s been noted that Leo Cullen has already opted for two 6/2 bench splits this term, away to Glasgow on opening day and again last weekend when Munster were the visitors to Lansdowne Road. Nienaber had yet to clock in but deductions were already being made.
“We have a lot of back rows so I’m always happy when it’s a 6/2,” laughed Scott Penny. “It’s something that a lot of teams are looking at right now. It obviously allows your forwards to give their all for 60 minutes and then go to the bench. I’m happy enough with it. It’s worked well for us whenever we’ve done it.”
Penny was captain that first weekend in Scotstoun. He actually stayed on 73 minutes before making way for Will Connors but every other forward taken off had departed the field by the 50th minute. How very Springbok.
Penny’s liking for the tactic isn’t hard to figure out.
Leinster’s back row depth chart remains ridiculously deep and the 24-year-old is ranked somewhere in the middle of it: below the Test regulars and above the academy up-and-comers and the likes of Rhys Ruddock, Alex Soroka and Martin Moloney.
That’s not quite high enough to make it into matchday squads for most European games. His Champions Cup debut only came last January, in his fifth senior term with the club, and he was a replacement against Munster in the big interpro clash last Saturday.
His is a career which proves just how well-stocked Leinster and Irish rugby is in this department because this is a guy who was voted the PRO14 Next-Gen Star of the Season in 2020/21 and a member of league dream teams to boot.
He has three league medals in his pocket and played a key role in an Ireland U2os Grand Slam campaign in 2019 but, like a lot of that year’s vintage, he has yet to make an indelible stamp on the senior international scene as of yet.
Ryan Baird has probably made most inroads of them all.
Penny, who played for Leinster before he appeared in the AIL with UCD or with the U20s, was called up to Andy Farrell’s senior group as injury cover during the last Six Nations and there is an understanding that he needs to tick some boxes in blue first.
“The way I see it is in these [interpro] games you are up against people who are fighting for the same positions. There are only 23 people who can get selected in the Ireland squad at any one time so an opportunity to play against some of them is something you want to do.
“I’m sure the coaches have that in the back of their minds. If you are playing well and consistently outplaying the opposition then I’m sure that persuades them in selection.”
He will face men of a similar mind in Galway tomorrow, players all too aware of the ladder and their place on it. This will be all the more apparent with the likes of Sean O’Brien and Cian Prendergast who have made the journey west from UCD to the Sportsground.
“It always is a hard battle when you play Connacht,” said Penny.
“There’s a lot of ex-Leinster lads there and they want to make a name for themselves, get one back, but it’s the same for us. We have just as much motivation.”
