KEY POINTS:
The impression has been given that there have been no casualties in the World Cup fall-out. That's not strictly true - the New Zealand Rugby Union's high performance unit, one of the best-funded divisions in world rugby, is about to undergo radical change.
And it's change that is being driven on the back of last week's damning World Cup Review that identified the high performance unit might in fact be anything but.
The headlines have understandably been grabbed by the conditioning programme and the related commercial disaster it inflicted.
But much of what was identified in the report is not necessarily worth dwelling on. The core problem with the conditioning break was timing - most of the subsequent issues were related to the when and not the why.
The NZRU has already said that it won't take players out of competition again. Problem fixed. Well, not really.
The much bigger issue identified in the report was the poor integration of the players into Super rugby after their conditioning window. There were also concerns raised at the often conflicting messages and philosophies players are exposed to by switching from their Super 14 franchises to the All Blacks.
All this points to a failure to capitalise on what for the past 12 years has appeared to be New Zealand's greatest strength - central contracting and NZRU ownership of the players.
In France and England, where the players serve two distinct and entirely unrelated paymasters, there is no unity of purpose.
The clubs are independent and operate under their own systems with no compulsion to implement any coaching or development models used by the national team.
New Zealand's structure is set up to provide consistency from age-grades through Super 14 to All Blacks. The NZRU own all the players' contracts and the All Blacks make all the money so the theory makes sense.
Except what has become clear is that too many parts of the system are in conflict, which is why the high performance unit is now looking for a high performance manager to more effectively manage and integrate all components of the elite game.
The new post has been created after Andrew Hore, who was the player development manager, decided to return to Wales to work with the Ospreys.
That created the opportunity to restructure, retaining Mike Chu as the high performance manager for coaches and creating another new post of high performance sports science manager, who will be responsible for overseeing strength and conditioning programmes, nutrition and mental skills.
Neil Sorenson, the NZRU's general manager of professional rugby, who oversees the whole division, admits the World Cup review correctly identified areas of weakness.
"It was probably more by good luck than by good management that we built such good working relationships between the All Blacks and other levels of the game.
'We were very fortunate that we had a coaching panel who worked really hard, who saw it as really important to give freely of their time and to try to get everyone on board. But we need a formal structure in place. The report criticises the lack of integration between the All Blacks and the high performance unit and that is an area where we have to do better."
Quite a bit better. The World Cup Review alluded to poor communication and planning around the practical implementation of the conditioning programme.
The mismanaged expectations of the players, Super 14 coaches and All Black coaches post-conditioning also suggests there was a failure to determine a common goal.
That's where the high performance manager is going to earn his crust - aligning the franchises with All Black objectives and establishing continuity and consistency in training methods.
That might not sound like much but potentially a more effective high performance unit could be a key weapon in not only improving All Black performances under pressure but also in keeping players in New Zealand for longer.
What has became evident in the last 12 months is the variety of factors that are driving New Zealand's best players offshore before their time.
One of those factors is the emotional drain players feel having to play, in some cases, for three different teams in one season. They learn one method of leadership in Super 14, another with the All Blacks and then for those who might play a bit of Air New Zealand Cup, there are yet more ideas to absorb.
Different concepts undermining and conflicting each other don't help to develop players or to build their enthusiasm.
Between 2004 and 2007, $8 million was pumped into the high performance unit. It is time for that investment to return a bigger dividend.
