KEY POINTS:
Shortly after North Harbour's final home game of the season - a 29-22 defeat by Auckland - out-going coach Wayne Pivac leant against a wall in the bowels of North Harbour Stadium chatting with a small bunch of reporters.
When the conversation turned to who Pivac would like
to see replace him after two fruitless years in the job, he said only that he would like it to be a coach who had come through the system; someone who had put runs on the board at club level and who was working their way up through the ranks.
It was almost as if Pivac had prior knowledge that Harbour were intending to do precisely the opposite. It's certainly not beyond the bounds of possibility that he knew the unlikely pairing of Craig Dowd and Jeff Wilson was being lined up to replace him.
Dowd, after all, was already the union's rugby development manager, a role that saw him responsible for player and coach development in the region.
Given Dowd's role, he certainly would have been consulted about who he thought was the best man for the job. It's pretty obvious now what his answer must have been.
Dowd may have got the job through the back door but it is his lack of coaching experience - and that of his assistant Jeff Wilson - that has attracted widespread criticism.
The view that Dowd's CV is on the light side for the job isn't entirely fair. Sure, he may lack a genuine connection to the union and his head-coaching experience may be limited to a season in charge of Wasps' reserve team, but the 60-cap All Black can hardly be thought a babe in the woods.
After an Achilles injury ushered him into retirement after four trophy-laden seasons at Wasps as a player, he moved seamlessly into the English club's coaching ranks.
His mentor during his first season was Warren Gatland and he spent two subsequent years marshalling the club's all-conquering forwards under the guidance of Lions coach Ian McGeechan.
Wilson is a different matter. An occasional dabble as a skills consultant is the sum total of his coaching experience. While it's safe to assume Wilson knows a thing or two about back play, whether he has the ability to successfully communicate that knowledge is another matter. Clearly Harbour - and Dowd - are banking on the fact that he does.
And Wilson, after all, will merely be the assistant coach. The buck will stop with Dowd.
Given the declining status of the national championship, there's a decent argument that it is now the perfect proving ground for men such as Dowd and Wilson.
And there is a flipside to the question of whether they are the right men for Harbour - is Harbour the right job for them?
Ambitious coaches need to choose their appointments wisely. Harbour chief executive Brett Hollister has already indicated the union's wage bill will remain static at best. The in-coming coaches, he told the Herald in a recent interview, would be expected to succeed with the same crop of players that have failed to make the playoffs in the past two seasons. Big money acquisitions are not on the cards.
It is Hollister's view that, considering its playing resources, the union has underperformed in recent seasons. It will be up to Dowd and Wilson to prove that view correct.
But what if it's not? What if Harbour's recent failures accurately reflect the level of talent available at a union that has been slashed by the double-edged sword of its best players being called into the All Blacks?
Pivac had a pretty decent coaching record before taking the Harbour job but he never looked like producing a competitive side once the likes of Anthony Tuitavake and Anthony Boric were removed from the equation.
The biggest thing in Dowd and Wilson's favour is that the bar has been set extremely low. It shouldn't be hard to improve on this year's 12th-placed finish.
Putting the knife into them now, however, seems premature. There will be plenty of time to judge the wisdom of appointing the All Blacks legends once they have actually had a chance to do the job.
