KEY POINTS:
It had to be a no-brainer for Carl Hayman. Living in Europe, playing rugby and doubling his annual salary.
The timing had to be right after the World Cup, the million-dollar wages offered a secure financial future and All Black shrink Gilbert Enoka would have had an authentic patient if the tighthead prop turned down the deal.
Money is not everything but it can make a serious difference, and by the time he hits 30, Hayman will have set himself up for life at the expense of an English club.
You've got to enjoy a little of that irony, but there are others in this tale as the determined efforts of the New Zealand Rugby Union failed to persuade Hayman to stay. Incentive packages were rebuffed; it was time to leave.
Rule changes had not depowered the All Black scrum but the euro could and the Newcastle club had barrowloads to chuck Hayman's way. The NZRU could not compete.
With the trickle of departing All Blacks now gathering momentum, the NZRU is getting a taste of what it was like for the Pacific Islands when they shed their players in the '90s.
That same sense of helplessness Samoa felt when they made the quarter-finals at the 1991 and 1995 World Cups but could not retain their players.
New Zealand was party to a deal that excluded them from a tripartite SuperRugby series but then offered contracts to some of their players that made them unavailable for internationals.
Any forecast about keeping players in New Zealand will be bleaker if the club versus country fight in Europe generates a breakaway Superclub series.
Those franchises will scour the world with their chequebooks, hunting off-contract stars to fill their playing rosters and New Zealanders will head those lists. The counter attraction of representing the All Blacks may also have dimmed because of the lacklustre international calendar and the unhealthy obsession with the World Cup.
For all sorts of reasons, tests in between the global tournaments do not have the same bite any more. They are repetitious, countries use makeshift squads, they rest or rotate players.
The NZRU did not protect the quality of its NPC or Super competitions, it allowed its emphasis on the World Cup to impact adversely on those series. The broadcasting paymasters at News Ltd have been disgruntled and crowd and viewer support has also dwindled.
New Zealand's response must be decisive. According to its own predictions, the NZRU is facing a tough financial future as chief executive-in-waiting Steve Tew prepares to take over.
In three short years, the Sanzar deal ends. Across the ditch, Australian and Sanzar chief executive Gary Flowers has gone after an ineffective term while New Zealand has never quite seemed on the same page as their South African partners.
What vision will the NZRU have to keep the professional and amateur games afloat here with only a year to go before hosting the 2011 World Cup?
