Decoding the intricacies of twitter profiles is a skill which is quite frankly unnecessary and useless to society as a whole. Which is precisely why we pride ourselves on having it in abundance. It may not be of any real world use to you but nevertheless, here's our step by step guide to finding out if a twitter account is a hoax or not.
Step 1 - Is the twitter account in question followed by key influencers?
Step 2 - Are there any pictures of said individual which are not easily available elsewhere?
Now let's apply that method to a rather intriguing twitter account going by the handle @PenzRob. Rob Penney's spell in charge of Munster is a difficult one to get a handle on. Not exactly universally popular during his spell in charge, there's since been a bit of revisionism going on considering how things have further slipped following his departure.
The question of whether Penney left of his own accord or was giving a helping hand out the door is one which remains but judging by his potential twitter account, he doesn't exactly seem like a man that was happy to leave the comforting embrace of Thomond Park.
But is the egg fronted @PenzRob actually the man himself? Let's apply the scientific method.
Is the twitter account in question followed by key influencers?
Donnacha Ryan, James Cronin, Billy Holland, JJ Hanrahan, CJ Stander, Keith Earls, Simon Zebo and a host of other Munster players are among Penney's 351 followers. That's a fairly good start.
But what of the crucial step 2? The picture round. Through the downright wizardry of reverse image search, we've concluded that (a) this is the only time this picture has appeared on t'internet. And therefore, (b) unless someone has gone to quite frankly criminal lengths to get this picture and set up a Rob Penney parody account, this is genuinely the former Munster coach who is tweeting.
Go Munster... In a ski resort in Japan in my Munster Colours getting ready for kick off!! pic.twitter.com/TBF04SSIye
— Rob Penz (@PenzRob) January 17, 2015
Right, so we're saying definitively that it is Rob Penney hiding behind the egg. Which makes his latest tweet particularly interesting;
Congratulations Connacht and Pat.... It could have and should have been so different!
— Rob Penz (@PenzRob) April 16, 2016
Call us sceptical but that certainly doesn't sound like a man who was happy to leave Munster two years ago with the given narrative being that he wanted to head to Japan for the sake of his family. Then there's this.
@ThumundLark That's a parody account dude! I think you mean @PenzRob! 😆
— Stephen Treacy (@StephenTreacy1) March 13, 2016
It's unlikely to happen of course, but if Munster did decide that going back to Penney was the way forward, his twitter account would suggest that he'd be more than willing to listen to any offers.
