By PHIL TAYLOR
The call came when Graham Henry was in a taxi with wife Raewyn, bound for an evening flight home to Auckland on Thursday.
As they drove round the capital's bays, Henry's emotions were mixed.
Although he'd searched, he'd seen no indication on the faces of rugby union board members who questioned him earlier in the day to decide who would get New Zealand sport's most demanding job.
"Being an ex-schoolteacher and headmaster I can usually read people reasonably well.
"I couldn't read what the decision was and that was frustrating. I'm not a very patient person."
The caller was Rugby Union boss, Chris Moller, who simply told Henry to turn the taxi around because he was wanted for a meeting at union headquarters early next morning.
It proved a restless night in the capital for Henry, for whom appointment as All Black coach is the realisation of a 30-year dream.
"We were apprehensive. I didn't really know why they wanted me to stay behind," he said.
"I was hopeful it was going to be positive, but I thought they might want to tell me I hadn't got the job face-to-face."
The cat was out of the bag at 9.15am yesterday when Henry walked into rugby's harbourside headquarters.
"I ran into Chris straightaway. He said 'congratulations'. It was a huge relief to me."
A union staff member handed Henry a small silver fern pin, which he attached to his lapel.
After all those years of dreaming. After his departure to coach Wales in 1998 seemed to spell death to his All Black ambition, here he was: a prodigy returned.
It had happened. He was it.
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