KEY POINTS:
There's more than a touch of the evangelist about Peter Thorburn.
The former All Black selector and North Harbour coach is heading home, as he puts it, to "tend to the garden" after 15 months as coach of the United States team, whose World Cup ended this week.
He enjoyed the stint, being involved with players who were always up for a hiding at the tournament but gave it everything against the likes of South Africa, England - whom they pushed far harder than anyone would have tipped - Samoa, who beat them by only four points and Tonga, whom Thorburn reckons was the one they could, make that should, have won.
But he suspects his coaching days may be over. He is 69 and, never shy of calling things as he sees them, believes experience is not rated in New Zealand rugby.
"I'd love to be involved in New Zealand but unfortunately once you get to a certain age they think you're past it," he said. "I upset people. I believe that if you believe in something you should stick up for it. You don't roll over because someone shouts louder.
"I seem to be a person who fights lost causes and we are not a country, I think, that values experience.
"The game's been taken over by chief executives, and very often they're not rugby people."
And don't get him started on talk of reducing the World Cup to 16 teams for 2011 in New Zealand. "It would be a retrograde step. Look at what's happened in countries like Namibia, the US and Portugal in the last four years. The fact that they are striving to get to the World Cup is raising standards.
"The big difference between the second and top tier is players are not playing in tough competitions week after week."
Thorburn is a vociferous champion of the little guy, maintains that collectively they have been done over in most respects during the World Cup - and there's plenty of evidence to back his argument - and loved his time with the US.
He insists if the game can get exposure in the US the public will take to it. It's a busy sports field in the US, with American football, baseball, basketball and ice hockey jostling for centre stage. Can rugby eventually get up there? It'd be a hard sell but ...
"It's a sleeping giant and it's going to come to life," Thorburn said.
"It's going in the right direction with [former England player] Nigel Melville and [corporate high flier, and US rugby boss] Kevin Roberts there. All it needs is to get it in front of the American public and they'll grab it.
"There are passionate people out there who love rugby, and they've got money. Remember, Americans love physicality. In American football the ball is in play seven minutes in a game; the average play is four seconds."
Thorburn is big on taking small projects and growing them and remains proud of his efforts with East Coast Bays, then North Harbour, whom he steered from the national championship third division to the first in the 1980s.
"That's why I love gardening, taking something and making it grow. You're on a hiding to nothing if you take something on at the top, there's only one way to go."
And the legacy he hopes he's left with the US cup players, all bar five of whom work 9 to 5 jobs? Call it self sufficiency, remembering they are brought up in a country where the national football game is structured in such a way that every play, every decision is done for the players.
"The most difficult thing is the transition to a game where you have to make decisions instantly, on the run. It's a huge difference in concept."
Thorburn will step in if he gets a "can you help out" call.
It would be a shame if the call didn't come. He is a lateral thinker and a man with bundles of enthusiasm. There aren't so many going around that they can afford to be tossed aside.
