KEY POINTS:
New Zealand rugby has developed a remarkable ability to complicate simple issues.
The All Black coaches did it throughout 2007.
Faced with the final countdown to a World Cup, Graham Henry and co looked at the powerful All Black machine they had developed and started tinkering with rugby's basic mechanics. Maybe they felt that their place in history was almost assured, and wanted to claim it in exalted glory.
Along the way, they forgot that young men thrive on the field of battle and in relative certainty. The also ignored form and fitness, and forgot that Aaron Mauger had been their linchpin.
The New Zealand Rugby Union picked up the ball of uncertainty yesterday, pulling the rug out from under Henry, then suggesting he might try to find his feet again.
The NZRU had two straightforward tasks. First, it needed to decide if Henry should keep his job. Secondly, if Henry was to be axed, it needed to decide who should be the next coach.
Instead, it managed to do neither and has opened the All Black job up to applicants. In doing so it has fallen between two stools and introduced more uncertainty in the form of Henry having to decide whether he will join the race.
It also risks aggravating the outstanding applicant, Robbie Deans, who must wonder why he struggles to win clear support.
Confused leadership by men who have been shell-shocked into procrastination? It might also be corporate-style ass-covering.
Henry and his cohorts, principally Steve Hansen and Wayne Smith, devised a World Cup plan so radical that some of it - specifically the Super 14 player pullout - required special boardroom support. Henry's regime certainly brought earlier success. But they reinvented the wheel and ended up smashed to pieces in a ditch.
All those in power at the NZRU - Chris Moller, Steve Tew and friends - are tied to the World Cup disaster.
For the NZRU to axe Henry outright, through not offering a new contract, would be to strike a blow to their records.
With this leadership procrastination, little wonder that those highly prized and pampered All Blacks couldn't organise a drop goal attempt in Cardiff.
The only central player who has acted with any certainty in the past few weeks is the Crusaders' brilliant coach Robbie Deans, who has shunned Australia and declared he wants the All Blacks job.
There are no certainties in coaching but his record says there is no better coach in the game.
Deans' presence should have made it easy to cast Henry adrift.
Deans is far and away the best All Black candidate in world rugby. The NZRU bosses should sit down and have a cup of tea, unscramble their brains and appoint Deans pronto.
