Photo / Richard Spranger

Counties Manukau Rugby’s Head of the Community Rugby Scott Penney has stepped down from his role to take up the new challenge as the new General Manager of Thames Valley Rugby.

Scott has been a loyal servant to rugby in this region for a number of years, through being a player in his younger days and holding various roles with the Karaka club, including as head coach of their Premier side, Premier two side and U21s before coming to work at CMRFU as the head of commercial.

This year he transitioned into heading up the community game and has poured his heart and soul into the role with a view of making a difference in our communities and their engagement to rugby at grass roots level.

“Scott has been an incredibly hard-working, passionate member of our Union for the last four years and this year jumped into running the community game after three successful years in the commercial space,” chief executive Aaron Lawton said.

“We are definitely going to miss him but if we are true to our purpose of growing, empowering and inspiring people through rugby then this is exactly the sort of opportunity we would want one of our own to grab with both hands. The beautiful thing is Scotty will be running a Union just down the road so stay tuned for a much closer collaboration with Thames Valley next year!

“Congrats Scotty. You’ve well and truly earned this opportunity and I have no doubt you will hit it out of the park.”

The Union will of course look to find a replacement as soon as possible as Scott’s last day with CMRFU will be December 14.