KEY POINTS:
Graham "Surly Ted" Henry v Robbie "Sly Dingo" Deans. That joust has been painted by both coaches as the undercard for tonight's Bledisloe Cup in Sydney but for many it remains the main event.
Let's face it, without their square-off, four Bledisloe Cup tests might have been a
bit hard to take this season.
But with emotions still warm about the decision of the New Zealand Rugby Union to reappoint Henry and his coaching crew, tonight's test puts that decision back into the spotlight.
Tonight's result will not sway people's judgment on which coaching horse they backed _ that verdict has been well done and dusted _ but the match will be a catalyst for all sorts of arguments to reignite.
Some will go like this: If the All Blacks win, the NZRU was right to reappoint Henry; if they lose, it is always tough to win offshore.
On the other hand: If Deans wins it proves he is the man on the rise; if he loses, wait until next year because he is just feeling his way with a new group of players.
Whatever happens this has to be better than the days when people debated ad nauseam the claims of Grizz Wyllie, John Hart or Laurie Mains to be All Blacks coach.
At least we can evaluate or at least kid ourselves we are comparing the coaching credentials of Henry and Deans, we are looking at what their sides achieve, rather than discussing what an alternative coach might have done.
So for much of this week, no matter their dislike or their protests about the amount of attention their rivalry is achieving, the headlines have been about Henry and Deans.
Even the mild-mannered John Eales offered his belief that the NZRU lost their chance to re-energise their coaching crew. It was the type of standard practice the Wallabies have used down the years to generate interest in their sport but, coming from someone as restrained and as erudite as Eales, he did make a compelling argument.
For Australian rugby officials the Henry-Deans debate is manna for a sport which battles to maintain a profile against league, Australian rules, soccer and other winter codes. Administrators like John O'Neill welcome and use those sorts of issues to push their sport on to the back pages of the major newspapers.
In New Zealand, administrators have shied away from that sort of jousting because they believe rugby is the premier sport, they do not need to overplay their hand and they always want to present a united viewpoint.
But times are changing, opinions are altering, test crowds are down, alternative codes or sports are more appealing.
Whatever the outcome of his four-year term with the Wallabies, Deans will benefit from his offshore contract.
It will be tough living in a megacity like Sydney when he would much prefer to deal with a 10-minute drive in Christchurch on his way to work.
He would have preferred to have been All Black coach although he would have become frustrated with the increasingly introspective and self-protective attitude of the NZRU.
Deans' time in Dingoville will give him a much broader understanding about rugby's global fight for survival and its commercial need for interaction. It may push him further away from New Zealand after the 2011 World Cup to other challenges or it may increase his urge to return home.
The fascination is watching those events unfold in the next four years.
