I didn't really fully comprehend what teaching the flair out of players meant until, to my horror, I saw Sunday's much-hyped Fiji versus Samoa Rugby World Cup match on telly.
The rejigged Islands' anthem, it seems, is all about playing percentages, building pressure and piling on points.
If that game was staged at the national stadium in Suva Point the Fijian fans would have pelted spent corncobs and watermelon rinds at players before leaving well before the final whistle.
Oh, okay, the irate fans would have more likely abused the officials and invaded the field.
More than two decades ago Waikato coach George Simpkin went to Fiji to help the islanders find some structure in the engine room and did so with aplomb.
Before leaving the shores, Simpkin made it quite clear the backline must never lose its autonomy if the Fijians are to maintain their cutting edge.
Just as fullback Severo Koroduadua - grabbing the ball in one hand and surging unchallenged towards the try line - had dropped the ball just metres shy of the goal posts in the inaugural cup in 1987 in New Zealand, it appears incumbent coach Sam Domoni and co. have emulated the former lanky policeman's feat in this campaign to dash Fiji's hopes of making the play-offs, albeit in a pool of death, well before the first whistle against South Africa.
If Simpkin had taught the athletic giants another thing, it was to make their tackles count.
Samoa are no exception. Their emphasis on playing pick-and-go, rugby league-style games shows why they have drafted the services of Hawke's Bay Magpies forward coach Tom Coventry.
Astonishingly the islanders don't need backline coaches for the simple reason they learn to play instinctively from day dot when they start throwing around empty plastic bottles on the dusty paddocks of villages and schools.
To kill that innate ability is akin to taking a speedy winger in soccer and turning him into a defender or taking fast bowler Doug Bracewell and turning him into a two-step spinner.
For that reason, Domoni, a former Waratahs and national lock/flanker, becomes redundant as coach.
Sadly, accomplished players don't necessarily make good coaches especially for teams who have a poor history of crouching, touching and engaging.
Even former Wallaby forward and Fiji coach Ilivasi Tabua, the "Human Skewer" who ended Springbok hooker Uli Schmidt's career, had done a better job than Domoni despite coming to the rescue of Fiji after ex-Northland coach Wayne Pivac left suddenly.
The challenge for any coaches embarking on a mission to the islands is to turn the mobile forwards into a juggernaut without throwing textbooks at the backline.
Any talk of Samoa cutting South Africa down to size is undiluted fantasy.
While the Polynesians were relatively better than their Melanesian cousins in the dour affair last Sunday, the fact remains they cannot match the might of the bolshy Boks anymore than David Tua would have ever pacified former world heavyweight boxing champion Lennox Lewis.
If anything, those who believe Pacific rugby will gain traction at an elite level by merely beefing up their forward pack is akin to those geniuses who coaxed Tua into spiking up his hair to somehow hoodwink the world - let alone Lennox's camp - into believing the vertically challenged Samoan boxer was compatible in the height and reach department.
It's almost as plausible as glowing media reports about how slick the All Blacks are after their match against a subdued France in Saturday night's 37-17 victory.
Put yet another way, it's as convincing as the silver cap skipper Richie McCaw slipped on after his 100th game for the Men in Black.
Symbolically Samoa and Fiji had huddled as one to pray after their game.
They need to because there were no winners, really.
