KEY POINTS:
The Kiwis' loss to the Kangaroos in Sydney was a massive disappointment.
Rather than celebrate 100 years of tests, it emphasised the poor state of an Aussie-dominated test scene.
The match was over soon after it started - for the sake of a gripping contest a fourth-quarter blowout would have been preferable to a first-quarter collapse.
But at least the rearguard action which kept the margin of defeat down helped to stop even more damage being done.
Reports over the weekend suggest that Wayne Bennett will stay on as adviser to coach Steve Kearney, and that the mid-year test between the two countries will survive. Bennett's presence will be a massive boost to this year's World Cup. His status will give what shapes as a lopsided tournament - in Australia's favour, of course - a degree of credibility.
His continuing involvement with the Kiwis will also help Kearney, who is not a club head-coach, find his way in the national job. Bennett may not have been so keen to continue had the Kiwis capitulated on Friday night in Sydney as they did in Wellington last year. The Brisbane supremo might have packed up his tent, believing that for the first time in his career his words were falling on deaf ears.
As for the mid-year test, it is better than nothing even if the Kiwis continually fail to measure up.
You can live in hope, and that's what sport is all about.
There was nothing sadder than the suggestion last year that the test may be scrapped because the Kiwis had trouble getting a competitive outfit on the field. Test football needs all the encouragement it can get - not those sorts of defeatist attitudes. It would be a shame if league fans had to wait until the end of each season before they got to watch a test match.
Another absolute humiliation on Friday night may have sounded the death knell for the so-called Anzac test. Apparently it will survive and if so, the Kiwi motto should be that if you fail, then try and try again.
MARSHALL AN ASSET
What a shame if the 34-year-old Justin Marshall doesn't get to play for Canterbury in this year's Air New Zealand Cup. Love him or hate him, the controversial halfback has been much missed since heading to Europe.
For a start, Marshall is actually prepared to comment on rugby, which is a rare, almost unique, trait among New Zealand players. He is more interesting than the rest of this country's professional players put together.
How ironic that Ali Williams gets away with his giant clown act, when Marshall was much criticised even though he actually said pertinent things about the rugby.
Marshall's presence would give an interesting twist to the domestic competition, and his experience and winning attitude would surely rub off on players around him.
But his belief that the New Zealand Rugby Union should pay him a "modest retainer" to turn out for Canterbury is overly optimistic because the NZRU needs to concentrate its resources on retaining and developing players in the professional Super 14.
The NZRU can hardly be expected to offer a soft landing for former test stars wanting to finish off their careers back at home. It should be the job of the provinces to sort out those deals for players not assured of Super 14 places. Not surprisingly, the NZRU has told Marshall that the financial cupboard is bare.
As for contributing to a reversal of the player drain as Marshall claims, the prospect of one ex-test great returning while a swag of the current mob head overseas is hardly a momentous turning of the tide.
Still, let's hope that a way is found for the 34-year-old Marshall to return from England.
As a player, he was superbly competitive and had an uncanny ability to spot when a game needed to be taken by the scruff of the neck, and how to do it. This made him an integral and founding part of the Crusaders dynasty which survives to this day.
A mystery of New Zealand rugby was why Marshall attracted such criticism. His outspoken honesty was refreshing - he called a ball a pig, yet paid the price in the court of public opinion.
TIALATA'S HULK HOGAN
Neemia Tialata copped a dreadful punch from Clint Newland in last year's Air New Zealand Cup and, quite rightly, was far from impressed by the cowardly king hit.
But it seems Tialata took the wrong message from it - the massive Hurricanes prop produced a wrestling-type throw on Force winger Doug Haylett-Petty that any grappler in tights would have been proud of.
It was a pointless act that has no place on the footy field and could hurt the Hurricanes' effort to book a semifinal place on Friday night. Tialata should expect no mercy at the judicial hearing today, and Hurricanes coach Colin Cooper will hardly be impressed with Tialata's Hulk Hogan act, either.
CHIEFS FAMILIAR FLOPS
The Chiefs are having one of the all-time great Super 14 road trip disasters after losses to the Force and the Lions. All that bluster around the forever failing Chiefs will no doubt make way for a plethora of the usual excuse making. The NZRU's bizarre decision to re-appoint coach Ian Foster early last year gets more suspect by the day. Foster is a decent bloke who has done a mildly reasonable job, but the truth is that the Hamilton outfit doesn't live up to its high potential under the guidance of the old Mooloo favourite.
The Chiefs had a world-class coach in Warren Gatland itching to take over last year - the people who ignored his claim should squirm in embarrassment.
GAVASKAR'S BELATED EXIT
Good riddance to cricket great Sunil Gavaskar after the former Indian batting supremo stepped down from his ICC post over the weekend. Gavaskar's attack on match referee Mike Procter during the heated Australia-India series was disgraceful. He should have got the heave-ho after accusing Procter of racism. Instead, the hopeless ICC gave Gavaskar an ultimatum, to quit as the cricket committee chairman or drop his media work because of conflict of interest.
