KEY POINTS:
We've been waiting a long time for a hero to emerge and so he has. Marlborough Rugby Union chairman Peter Heagney, a rough-hewn character who clearly can't be bothered with the airs and graces adopted by the rest of the charlies who are running the national game into
the ground, gave it to the NZRU straight.
His description of them as gun-shy and spineless, as an organisation run by men unable to make hard-and-fast decisions based on bald facts, was music of Pavarotti quality to the ears to those of us who thought that rugby was virtually brain-dead.
From his little place in the rugby hinterland, Heagney observed the blindingly obvious, that the Air New Zealand Cup is not affordable or attractive.
Mr Heagney - you are a true champion, for the sheer honesty of your statements alone. What a relief. A rugby man who thinks straight and talks even straighter.
He had a glowing target to aim at, because the NZRU descended even further into their fantasy world of muddling and fiddling via the Northland/Tasman fiasco.
At least Heagney has their number, even if others play along with the game. Because the NZRU has been leading provinces up an expensive garden path while only talking manure, rather than providing it. They've talked big and provided little.
Yet Heagney lifted the spirits against all odds, just as his little union did in the most famous of Ranfurly Shield clashes against the might of Canterbury 35 years ago.
For years we have had to endure the self- serving middle managers who run the unions and Super 14 franchises slurping quietly from the NZRU trough while staying silent on a range of issues that have been mishandled by central office.
The 2003 World Cup hosting debacle, the 2007 World Cup debacle, the Robbie Deans debacle, the Warren Gatland debacle, the player drain debacle ... even those who foolishly stand on the side of the NZRU in any or all of these matters would have to admit there has been a startling lack of vigorous debate from within the game on landmark issues that have left domestic rugby close to ruin.
Why? Because a sport that relies on NZRU handouts is too scared to upset the bully boys who hold the cheque book in Wellington. That's why.
Plus, of course, rugby's famous mantra that they are running a crusade of such importance that the minions, those folk in the stands who open their wallets as generously as their hearts, have absolutely no rights to know.
The All Black selectors even get to play God, picking and choosing which of their golden boys play in the national championship, without a whiff of protest from those who are affected.
Rugby's hear-no-evil, see-no-evil monkeys have treated the public with contempt, but finally the public is striking back through its disinterest. And the NZRU has nowhere to hide on the Northland/Tasman stink. No long-winded ducking and diving exercise masquerading as a credible report can save them from full exposure, although no doubt they will all keep their jobs.
This debacle isn't just about the issue. To steal one of those horrible phrases from the modern coaching manual, this is about rugby's leadership group.
At the very moment a teetering game that can barely fill a few buses on the way to a local derby at Albany was looking for strong direction, the NZRU came up chumps yet again.
An arbitrary decision to chop the top of both islands from the top division was spun into reverse, leaving the NZRU tarred as fools and procrastinators of the highest order.
It left one burning question: do these people have a clue what they are doing?
The rationale for the change of heart over the size of the Air New Zealand Cup competition is obscure, but if the NZRU expected a great swelling of public opinion in their favour, they also got that wrong.
Most of the public simply don't care, and in the case of Marlborough, they threw the temporary pardon back in the NZRU's face.
Whereas Nelson Bays - all bright-eyed and bushy-tailed despite the state of the bank accounts - want to jump back in the ring for another pounding under the Tasman flag, Marlborough want to throw in the towel.
The straits that separate the NZRU and the Marlborough union must be a gulf.
Heagney and all but one of his eight clubs simply looked at their own region, realised where it stood in the great scheme of things, and said no thanks. They are quite happy to play in the downmarket Heartland championship, and leave the big dreams and schemes to others.
They are so right. Cut your cloth to fit, and all of that, which is what Heagney has done. He's probably got the maths right as well when he says this country is big enough for only nine first division unions.
Why on earth would a region like Marlborough buy into this NZRU nonsense, when it is pretty clear that they are only to be used as a stepping stone for superstars who don't want to pull the jersey on anyway, and will only get further and further into the financial mire in the process.
One of the great rorts in New Zealand sporting history has involved listing Tasman as the home union to no less than four recent All Blacks - Ali Williams, Brad Thorn, Chris Jack and Rico Gear. Williams didn't really want to be in Christchurch, let alone Tasman, and Gear could barely conceal his contempt for his new home.
Tasman was used as a convenience by these blokes and their highest paymasters.
Okay, so the days are fast ending when the best players take part in the Air New Zealand Cup. We can all understand that, and the reasons why. They are sound.
But don't insult the little unions along the way, not to mention steering them towards insolvency.
It has taken a man who has no intention of licking and slurping, whose union has nothing left to lose, to put some starch back into the game.
It is, as the former All Black prop Richard Loe demanded in his newspaper column at the weekend, also time for NZRU chief executive Steve Tew to jump or be pushed.
A decisive, powerful and intelligent figure is needed to lead rugby through difficult times. It's not an easy job, let's be fair. But the Northland/Tasman disaster is a nadir too far.
Tew's administration, a continuation of the Chris Moller era, is tiring and failing.
Having won the job uncontested in one of the NZRU's wondrous succession plans, Tew needed to be better than this. The time has come to find out what other possibilities are out there, as should have happened in the first place.
"Teflon" Tew can survive, though - if he wants to hang on - because there aren't enough forthright types like Peter Heagney in the national game.
