KEY POINTS:
I've no idea if Rob Penney is a good rugby coach.
I presume he is. He's certainly no lemon or he would not have been put in charge of the Canterbury team in the Air New Zealand Cup for a second year.
Tonight he is trying to put another piece of hardware in the Canterbury Rugby Union's bulging trophy cabinet by beating Wellington at the Cake Tin.
Here's hoping he does, not for any lingering red and black ties but more because he will have done it without the "world's best player". And having been told he cannot have Dan Carter clearly touched a nerve with the coach.
Carter hasn't been around through the cup campaign but when the best are there surely they should be playing, especially on the night of the competition showpiece.
When a coach in this country is asked how he feels about not being able to pick a certain All Black, the tendency is to drop into rugby-speak for fear of a telling-off.
So the answer usually involves something about it being a case of "moving on and not worrying about it"; "that's the breaks"; or "it's tough for the player but gives someone else an opportunity".
Instead, Penney spoke with honesty and feeling.
Was he happy? Was he heck.
He was "really disappointed", adding it had not "been handled overly well" and if anyone needed a break it was not Carter but the All Black captain Richie McCaw.
Instead, McCaw plays. Carter's only rugby since the end of the All Blacks' Tri-Nations campaign six weeks ago was a knockabout game against NZ Barbarians this week in Auckland.
When Penney referred to the handling of the situation he was not specific, but you don't need to puzzle long and hard over that. Penney may face charges of breaking New Zealand rugby's code of omerta - something which tends to have permanent consequences among those in another walk of life - offering a voice which shifts from the party line.
He's unlikely to be on certain high-powered Christmas card lists, but you suspect he spoke for a large proportion of the rugby public yesterday.
Penney's point was that the final of New Zealand's top domestic competition deserved having the best available players.
If it's good enough for the All Black captain to be available why not Carter?
Was it Carter's call to give it a miss or the All Blacks management's? McCaw, given the position he fills on the field, plus the on-field requirements over a season and off-field commitments, would seem to have a stronger argument to put out a "Can I please be excused?" note.
As it happens, Penney's No 10 will be the highly promising Colin Slade, the latest to fall off the Christchurch Boys' High School first five-eighths conveyor belt after Andrew Mehrtens, Carter and Stephen Brett.
But that misses the point. More power to the Penneys of the world.
