For twenty two years, Sir Gordon Tietjens was King.
The Sir Alex Ferguson of Sevens.
The master coach who could do no wrong.
Then came the calamitous Olympic campaign.
New Zealand scraped into the knockout stage by one point, only to be beaten by Fiji in the quarter finals.
I
have been on record since that disastrous campaign, questioning Tietjens' tactics, selections and preparations for Rio.
I have spoken to many close to the Sevens programme who feel Sir Gordon was far too dogmatic.
He did not move with the times - or adapt to the rapid improvements of a host of nations like Kenya and South Africa.
So this week, out comes Sir Gordon's new book, Legacy.
It highlights the massive falling out, not just between Tietjens and his bosses at the NZRU but also Tietjens and Steve Hansen.
I knew relations had soured, but this was next level.
Sir Gordon is damning in his assessment of the way the Sevens program was treated by the NZRU and the All Black coaches.
In an interview on my radio show yesterday, Sir Gordon did not mince words.
"It was a disgrace. I walked out of my meeting with Steve Hansen despondent, I wasn't in any way degrading the All Black jersey, but I felt it was our time, our year," said Tietjens.
"What had started as a dream had morphed into full blown nightmare."
At face value, several of the Tietjens' allegations are a terrible look for the NZRU.
The meeting with Steve Hansen and the All Black coaches, which Tietjens' left feeing he had "no power" and was "completely isolated".
The text he would later receive was from the General Manager of Professional Rugby, Neil Sorenson, who was also at that meeting.
"I admire you for the way you handled the disgrace that is AB-7's selection issue, your integrity remains in tact," the text read.
The fact that the so called 'robust' review into the failure of our men's team at Rio, was just four questions - there wasn't even a follow up phone call or face to face de-brief.
Or the fact that Tietjens' emailed Neil Sorenson and High Performance Director Don Tricker in the months leading into Rio - with what he called a "cry for help", with so many players going down to injury.
According to Tietjens, he never received a reply.
The only phone call he got, was from Ardie Savea, confirming he was also putting the All Blacks ahead of Olympic glory.
There's no doubt, the NZRU and Tietjens have a very different view of what led to the abject failure of the men's program last year.
Tietjens' frustrations are aimed squarely at the power wielded by Steve Hansen and the All Blacks.
Did Hansen unduly influence his star All Blacks to bypass the Olympics?
Reading between the lines, Tietjens thinks yes.
"I always have my suspicions, the pressure came from somewhere and you do feel for the players who were put in the middle," said Tietjens.
For now, the one unmistakable fact to take out of this whole sorry saga is that on the biggest stage of all, after years of world domination, our Sevens program fell to pieces when it mattered most.
Kiwis: Good Losers?
Let me take you back almost twelve months ago.
Ireland pull off one of the biggest upsets in World Rugby - they finally taste victory over the All Blacks.
This would normally send red blooded Kiwi rugby types into a tail spin.
In the radio business, we call this talkback gold.
Instead the callers that day on my radio show were brilliant.
They paid tribute to the Irish - there were no calls for the All Black coaches to be hung, drawn and quartered.
I took that day, as a maturing of the New Zealand rugby public.
So, we skip forward to last Sunday.
The country dissects a 23-18 loss to Australia.
I said on my radio show, I did not feel one ounce of bitterness or frustration at the loss.
The Wallabies wanted it more.
That theme is continued this week.
Outside of my old mate, Mark Watson, who lost his #hit over the loss.
Those that I've spoken to, aren't panicking at all - in fact, plenty were blasé.
It's sport, you lose.
Does that mean the Wallabies are suddenly a better side than the All Blacks? Absolutely not.
What it does show is that Kiwi rugby fans are taking losses with a far greater maturity.
Why you ask?
Simple. When you are back-to-back World Champions, life is generally pretty good.
