I now believe the rumours that Chris Lendrum, New Zealand Rugby's general manager of professional rugby and performance, came to Christchurch between the first and second tests in South Africa last month, and offered the All Blacks coaching job to Scott Robertson.
Robertson is not my source, but people I trust have assured me that the offer was not dependent on what happened in the second test.
Lendrum and NZR chief executive Mark Robinson met with Ian Foster two days after the All Blacks won 35-23 in the maelstrom at Ellis Park. The board of NZR then voted unanimously, chairman Stewart Mitchell swears, to keep Foster as coach.
At that press conference announcing Foster's retention, Robinson denied that Robertson had been placed on standby.
When a situation unfolds that isn't fair to either Robertson or Foster, you can't help but wonder what's going on between the staff of NZR, led by Robinson and Lendrum, and the board.
Did the board approve Robertson reportedly being asked to put his coaching team together, including Leon MacDonald and Jason Holland?
Whatever the answers are, it's fair for the stakeholders in the game, from the provincial unions, to the club players, to the fans who buy the tickets, merchandise and Sky subscriptions, to have reasons to be concerned about what's happening at the highest levels of our rugby's administration.
Can the day be saved again?
So many All Blacks games this year have felt like a dance at the last chance saloon, and nothing changes for the test with the Pumas.
Despite the now usual flood of criticism when the team was announced, Foster and his selectors may well have got it right by not making any changes for Hamilton. The All Blacks fell short in Christchurch, but they were hardly put to the sword.
They were better in the scrums, better in the lineouts until hooker Samisoni Taukei'aho was subbed off, and only beaten at the breakdown. Winning in the Waikato could depend on improving in just one, albeit vital, area, by not giving away so many penalties at the breakdown.
So what happens if they lose? Who, in this bizarre year, would know?
More vicious than before
Given that All Blacks have always been the nearest thing we have to film or music celebrities, they've forever been targets for criticism, as well as adoration.
A great All Black of the 1950s didn't speak to the Herald's Sir Terry McLean for 40 years, after McLean had light-heartedly compared the player's running style to a hippopotamus.
What's changed in the 21st century is, as Murray Deaker said to me not long before he stood down after decades as a massive-rating sports commentator on Newstalk ZB, how the anonymity of the internet has not only ramped up the viciousness of comments, but also provided a public platform to vent them.
When he began on air, said Deaker, people who disagreed vehemently with him argued against his views. By the time he was finishing his career they were making personal attacks on him, not addressing the issues.
In 2022 it's a strange dichotomy that on the one hand there's a move to be more concerned for the mental health of people in sport, while at the same time there seems no personal blow too low when the subject is wearing an All Black jersey, or sitting in their coaches' box.
