Chris Rattue: All hail the return of a Kiwi king

Let the applause ring out for a New Zealander taking the reins of the Kiwis again.

With Daniel Anderson to join St Helens, Brian McClennan is - we are told - poised to take charge.

That McClennan should get the job, there should be no doubt. He has proven his ability in the domestic game, and has test experience as Anderson's assistant.

There isn't another contender to touch him.

He also comes from the core of the game's powerbase in Auckland, which has - to great cost - been ignored too often by people in high places.

And to the wider issue. International rugby league is hardly in a fit state and an Australian guiding the Kiwis doesn't help.

The game is dominated enough by the NRL. Having an Australian coach only reinforces, and virtually encourages, our second-class status. This is the time to stand tall and move back to the proper option.

It was a major mistake in the first place allowing Anderson to coach both the Kiwis and Warriors. It created conflicts of interest, and must have diluted Anderson's concentration.

Anderson, I believe, exposed the weak points in using an overseas coach. He had an overly clinical approach, whereas the Kiwis really need to exploit their physical advantages, and ally that to playing on pride and aggression. Ultimately, he failed to challenge Australia's superiority.

And surely, for instance, an independent home-grown Kiwi coach would have moved heaven and Earth to inspire more greatness out of Stacey Jones last year, rather than opening the exit door through which the halfback departed the international game.

I am not convinced at all that Jones' decision to quit the Kiwis early was not determined by his strained relationship with Anderson from their Warriors days.

McClennan's appointment would have ironies.

His father, Mike, the fullback in the Kiwi victory over Australia at Carlaw Park in 1971, was a coaching guru - with a rare gift - who should have been a Kiwi coach.

Administrators like the obstinate George Rainey were wary of the maverick and McClennan snr didn't always help his own cause.

That his exceptional Mt Albert side of the 1980s produced a legion of future coaches was testament to the McClennan influence, though.

In the early 1990s, as he prepared to head off to coach St Helens, he told the Herald: "I'm always hung over on Monday morning, whether we win or lose.

"I love the social aspect of the game and I couldn't count the memorable occasions I've had with players, officials and supporters."

At St Helens, "Mad Mike" gave rise to the concept that invention is nine tenths of the rugby league law.

He once had a tall player head the ball over the goal line, enabling George Mann to score.

The bemused referee had to allow the try, but the tactic was quickly outlawed.

McClennan, who also had a special gift for mangling the English language, left St Helens in famous circumstances, after he doused the flames of abuse among some supporters with a splash of beer.

Brian McClennan, a clever reader of the game from standoff in his career, appears to have the coaching gifts but with a more judicious style.

And he has arrived at a time when the Kiwis are not full of older, less compliant, war horses.

With new eager young Kiwi stars such as Sonny Bill Williams, Benji Marshall and Frank Pritchard emerging, the prospect of McClennan taking charge looks like a great fit.