KEY POINTS:
Graham Henry's irritated poke at the International Rugby Board for failing to deal with the issue of under-strength international teams and increasingly meaningless test matches must have made many people blink, hold their newspaper at arm's length and wonder if a trip to the optometrist was in order.
Henry, perhaps the most thorough and creative innovator in the history of New Zealand rugby, has transfixed much of the country with his single-minded pursuit of the 2007 Rugby World Cup.
Most of us, having frothed at the mouth in the successive disappointments of 1995, 1999 and 2003 are prepared to give Henry anything he wants if it means - as the Aussies say - bringing back Bill (the William Webb Ellis trophy). But perhaps we shouldn't give him the ability to display a selective memory - and blame solely the IRB and the northern hemisphere for diluted test teams 'putting the game in jeopardy'.
I am no fan of the IRB. I have written several columns in recent times (including 'Meddling adds boredom to dangerous list', Herald on Sunday April 22; and 'IRB no longer rule the rugby world', Herald on Sunday March 11) which themselves have a crack at rugby's (alleged) governing body and its seeming inability to do anything meaningful except make frustrating and unnecessary changes to scrums.
But I think it's a bit rich to plonk all those rotten apples in the IRB's basket without acknowledging that little old New Zealand and, indeed, even Mr Henry may have played a supporting role in this drama.
Taking 'development' sides away dates way back and it is true that northern hemisphere sides - with their club vs country dilemma - have been at the forefront. But it was 2002 when John Mitchell took his 'development' All Black side away. It was only 2005 when Henry took away a planeload of All Blacks and gobsmacked the northerners by fielding two completely different teams in the first two internationals... and winning. What could have been a grievous insult turned out to be a... grievous justified insult.
Henry showed the way to a whole raft of international coaches who immediately began copying his methods of building depth and a squad which we all know is perfectly capable of winning the World Cup.
Then came rotation and reconditioning. Predicated on the basis of "too much rugby" and "player welfare", the Henry logic was sound - and poked another sharp stick in the ribs of the IRB.
It also had the welcome side-effect of helping to prepare our brave lads for the World Cup better. Four million Kiwis nodded in approval.
However, there was a downside, wasn't there? There was a hint of a backlash as rotation gripped and All Black XVs which were not the best All Black XVs were fielded. Some muttered about cheapening the jersey as some convenient selections were made (and then discarded). But they were howled down as the fans pointed in the general direction of Bill and made baying noises.
There were more murmurings about the lack of quality exhibited in some of these games and more harrumphs were heard as the last Super 14 - minus 22 reconditioning All Blacks - ground its way through some pretty ordinary fare and ended up, for only the second time in Super history, without a New Zealand team in the final.
But it was all in the name of the World Cup, you see, so the discontent remained sotto voce.
And now the evil French have sent a side out here containing loads of Gastons and Jean-Claudes of whom we have never heard. Henry said: "The All Blacks team that went to Europe last November was the best that we could put on the track. We are holding up our end of the bargain, we are showing a lot of integrity, we are putting the international game first."
Really? The line we were fed in 2006 was that the tour of France and Britain was being pursued as a virtual carbon copy of, and dress rehearsal for, World Cup year - so there was no point in sending a development team anyway.
Henry is quite right. Rugby does need to lock the protagonists in a room and knock heads together so the issues of club vs country and an over-dominant World Cup sabotaging international and provincial rugby doesn't send the game plummeting to the depths.
But, right now, we can hardly complain when, in World Cup year, the dastardly French pull the rotation and/or development trick back on us.
It's all about the World Cup, you know. And there's the thing. It isn't just parts of the rugby world causing this problem. It's all of us.
