KEY POINTS:
When the NZ Rugby Union needed to be ruthless, when it needed to show the nation it could be brave and resourceful ... it took the soft option.
Re-appointing Graham Henry as All Black coach was a decision from a vulnerable and self-serving board, not a judgment about the future of New Zealand rugby.
It was a verdict which looked like the board justifying the conditioning and rotation strategies it allowed Henry and his panel to peddle in the over the past few years.
There was the whiff of a done deal, an in-house arrangement.
Retaining Henry did not reflect the mediocrity of the entire season and a flawed entire World Cup campaign, let alone the Cardiff capitulation.
It avoided the Super 14 coaching ruckus which would have ensued if Robbie Deans had been promoted and Colin Cooper and David Nucifora had also shifted to the international ranks.
It continued the snug relationship Henry has had with the NZRU - or even the power he has exerted over it - since he, Steve Hansen and Wayne Smith had their two-year deal extended after the Lions series.
The NZRU was in no mood to deal with the challenges Deans would have brought to some in the NZRU hierarchy, men such as chief executive Steve Tew and All Black manager Darren Shand, who would not be on his Christmas card list.
The warning sign came this week with the announcement that Mike Heron and Don Tricker would be the independent assessors for the season, even though both men have previously been used on NZRU and All Black business.
Was it another cosy arrangement, like yesterday's coaching conclusion?
Deans has his flaws, but he has succeeded in the only avenue available to him to show his coaching credentials.
His repeated Super 14 successes, his selection acumen, his hands-on style, his merciless manner despite his choir-boy appearance, showed him to be a top-level coach.
The NZRU should not have chosen Deans to prevent him coaching the Wallabies. It should have picked him because he was in his prime, he was the best candidate.
Instead, it re-appointed Henry whose influence allowed Hansen and Smith to survive.
Smith is now set for his fourth All Black tenure, even though the All Black backline has delivered splutteringly under his latest tutelage.
You have to applaud Henry for the pressure he was able to exert over a board which was seduced by the coach's savvy, his record, his commercial clout and his pleas about being robbed by the officials in the quarterfinal.
They were smokescreens the board could not peer past.
Henry pushed the right political buttons. He had been around the board so long he knew members' aims, ambitions, and weaknesses. He was also been heavily involved in laying out strategies for next year, including the Bledisloe Cup test in Hong Kong, taking players out of the national championship and marking out another grand slam tour.
Henry had his chance, and with 42 wins from 48 tests has built an impressive record. He will do so again over the next few years because of New Zealand's talent pool.
But he failed in his quest for the World Cup. In the process, with the NZRU's blessing, the entire season was blighted so the All Blacks could produce about 20 minutes of top quality rugby at the World Cup, against Italy, before sagging to defeat.
No wonder the Rugby Union seemed to shift the selection criteria to Henry's four-year tenure.
