Let's face it. His approach was old school but effective.
That is, train your socks off to attain a frightening level of fitness on a predominantly heavy diet of blistering pace and beefy blokes breaking tackles or charging over the try line with defenders hanging on to them.
Whenever he spotted talent in the mould of Jonah Lomu, Christian Cullen and Beauden Barrett the All Blacks swooped in like the FBI and quietly whisked them away for the bigger picture.
To have run the Titch gauntlet and come out the other side was in itself considered an act of bravado.
But, as of late, that exercise has become almost redundant because the XV talent scouts obviously realised if Titch was breaking boys then they were, by default, not doing enough.
Nowadays scouts are planting ear tags on pedigree players in high school in rugby, rugby league, soccer or cricket.
Presumably Titch's nursery was always going to be a lower decile one and he was doomed to be the victim of his own success.
He was expected to collect the crumbs off the table and mix them with leftovers from the pantry to present creations to tantalise the taste buds of pseudo rugger fans.
Of course, along came the International Olympic Committee to plant gold, silver and bronze stickers on the sevens menu so the rules of engagement dramatically changed.
The fundamental difference in the four-year build up to Rio wasn't that the All Black Sevens lacked size, speed or because New Zealand Rugby failed to guarantee him Super Rugby players.
No, it was because Titch simply failed to identify and establish an outright playmaker.
Like it or not, the pivots in previous campaigns were players in the mould of Amasio Valance, Tomasi Cama jnr and Orene Ai'i.
Looking from outside, it seemed as if Titch had proclaimed Gillies Kaka the playmaker but the first-up loss to Japan in Rio and the long-haired one's benching and sporadic use thereafter contradict that assertion.
Training players into the ground has its limitations and sevens is a different beast from XVs. More importantly, the little general who conducts the show on the field in sevens also possesses an unmistakable sixth sense that others mimic.
Conversely that intrinsic value is a given to teams such as Fiji, who had grappled with matters pertaining to diet, fitness, tackling and on-field discipline until Englishman Ben Ryan came along to sort them out.
Ryan is now a free agent and deserves whatever fiscal and professional windfall that will come his way.
Should New Zealand join the lolly scramble to lure Ryan and was coaching solely why the Kiwis underachieved? Is he the right fit for this country's issues any more than what Eric Rush or DJ Forbes can offer as former players?
You see, Fiji's attributes and imperfections are markedly different from those of the All Black Sevens.
No doubt, Ryan could be a coup in that he moulded a formidable template for a world champion and Olympic gold medal-winning team so one would imagine he also would know how to dismantle it.
But it would be a grave mistake to hastily appoint a coach who would arrive here with the preoccupation of what Fiji can do rather than unlocking the intricacies of New Zealand.
For that matter, taking advice from Tietjens on his successor is tantamount to adhering to a derelict constitution.
That the ABs sevens broke down physically and mentally all the way to Rio is in itself evidence of a dire need to change the routine of preparation, never mind players appeared to ignore protocol once they took the field.
It's no secret that it was Titch's way or the highway so, invariably, some players found themselves marginalised come Rio.
Is it difficult to find a successor to Tietjens because of the big shoes he left behind to fill or is it perhaps because he overstayed his tenure?
To a certain extent it's understandable that Tietjens was left to his own devices because of the very ad hoc nature of sevens.
In appointing a successor, NZ Rugby needs to ensure the prevailing applicant is someone who imposes his will with regard to following due process.
Unbridled power has a way of not just destroying individual souls in any ecosystem but also decimating the very fabric of existence, especially if success camouflages indiscretions.
