KEY POINTS:
Geez, no wonder there is confusion in the rugby world.
Arch-Cantabrian Robbie "The Angel" Deans is going to be Waltzing Matilda and Eddie "Fighting Harada" Jones is learning Shosholoza.
Ali Williams is talking about leaving his Auckland safety net for another franchise while Rico Gear is slipping out of his Poverty Bay, Auckland, North Harbour, Tasman colours to play for Canterbury. No surprise there as that deal was more apparent than Maurice Chevalier's hooter when the wing transferred to Tasman because Canterbury were allowed to sign one only All Black and Kevin Senio had grabbed that spot.
Next thing, though, Greg Cooper will move north from the Highlanders to replace Bay of Plenty man Joe Schmidt as assistant coach of the Blues. Oh, that's right, he will team up with Aussie David Nucifora, who is moving into his third term as coach.
It is the face of professional sport-people move, boundaries are blurred and contracts mean very little. Has any player been refused an early release to go overseas or a change of plans on compassionate grounds?
Loyalty and unswerving sporting allegiance have gone with the arrival of professionalism. No more are the club and provincial colours forever, as they were for the post-war generation who rarely switched companies and were in a job for life.
Now money talks, ambitions are satisfied rather than subjugated, self-interest is put before team success.
It seems Super 14 coaches this year were guaranteed job extensions when the All Blacks withdrew 22 players from a large chunk of the competition. Nucifora, Ian Foster, Colin Cooper, Deans and a relocated Cooper are all in work again next year as the search for the Highlanders' replacement supremo goes on.
The position is so sought after that Southland coaches Dave Henderson and Simon Culhane have apparently balked at the idea, leaving Otago locals like Glenn Moore, Steve Martin and Jeff Wilson strongly in the frame.
The NZRU has been getting twitchy, though, trying to drum up interest from other candidates with a series of inquiring phone calls to provincial coaches last week. So far the response has been lukewarm; maybe the job is seen as the poisoned chalice.
Chief executive Russell Gray, who also exits in November, has fielded about 10 inquiries for the vacancy to be filled by the end of this month. It is a limited field, perhaps explained by Gray's confirming there will be no change in the franchise's policy of picking local players first, recruiting others and then going to the draft.
If the draft were held today, he claimed, the Highlanders would need to pick only three players. That suggests they have recruited heavily or are going with a swag of locals.
After an untidy competition this year, the Super 14 needs to have the best 140 players in 2008 and the NZRU should take a more muscular hand in enforcing that theme.
