But is it time to ask if Jamie Joseph is the best coach the Highlanders have ever had?
I know, I know. Seems a bit premature given his career consists of just nine games, right?
And for a franchise that seems to have been in the mire for a long team, the Highlanders have been blessed with some very good coaches.
In order, the coaches have been Gordon Hunter (1996), Glenn Ross (1997), Tony Gilbert (1998-99), Peter Sloane (2000-01), Laurie Mains (2002-03), Greg Cooper (2004-07), Glenn Moore (2008-10) and the Rugby Jesus (2011 and hopefully many years to come).
The first thing you notice is that eight coaches in 16 seasons is kind of a lot. And that four of the men were All Black coaches or assistants.
Statistically, Gilbert was the best. He won 16 of his 25 games (64%) and led the Highlanders to two semifinals and a final.
Mains won 14 from 23 (61%), reaching one semifinal and getting close to another before the 2003 mutiny, and Sloane won 12 from 23 (52%) and made one semifinal.
Cooper, the longest-serving Highlanders coach, managed 21 wins from 48 (44%), Ross won just three from 11 (27%) in his sole season, and Moore tried his hardest but could only win 10 games from 39 (26%).
• ... to King Jamie
And Joseph? He was at seven wins from nine games (78%) before last night in his debut season as Highlanders coach.
It's a small sample, and may remain that way if a certain team fails to win a certain trophy later this year, and a certain rising coach gets elevated to the top job in the country.
But look at what Joseph has done with this team and tell me he doesn't have a magic touch.
He can obviously coach, because he's squeezing the most out of a group of players, the majority of whom were in the Highlanders team that won just three games last year. His selections have been spot on - think Shaun Treeby, Jarrad Hoeata and Kade Poki, and the impact those new faces have had this season.
He's had a bit of fortune, too. Moore would have loved to have had a fit Nasi Manu last year, for example.
Otherwise, it's been water-to-wine stuff.
Players like Poki, Hoeata, Manu, Jamie Mackintosh, Adam Thomson and Kenny Lynn are having career years for Joseph, but none are current All Blacks.
Look at the talent Gilbert had to work with in 1999. His starting XV for the final was Jeff Wilson, Brendan Laney, Romi Ropati, Pita Alatini, Brian Lima, Tony Brown, Byron Kelleher, Isitolo Maka, Josh Kronfeld, Taine Randell, John Blaikie, Brendon Timmins, Kees Meeuws, Anton Oliver and Carl Hoeft.
Combine that XV and tonight's XV playing the Blues, and how many 2011 players make the cut?
Poki, on form, would shade Lima. Similarly, Manu would trump Maka. And perhaps the dynamism of Hoeata and Bekhuis would be preferred over the yeoman qualities of Blaikie and Timmins.
This is not a team of superstars. But Joseph has us all believing.
• Lighting up Kurow
Those fine men and women up the Waitaki Valley are showing their innovative side in club rugby again.
The Kurow club is planning two more games under lights this season after previous successful nocturnal run-arounds.
It plans to play Excelsior on May 6 - the Friday before duck shooting weekend - and Valley on May 11, a Wednesday.
The theory around the second game is that it takes place in the middle of the South Island dog trial championships, and the game will provide some entertainment for the visiting hordes.
Ageless Kurow loose forward-prop-second five Regan Laughton tells me Meridian provides some extra lighting for the ground, but the players still dread the up-and-under because the ball gets completely lost.
• Money, money, money
An American friend passed on an interesting article from ESPN relating to the highest-paid sportspeople in no fewer than 184 countries.
The organisation listed estimated salaries from athletes in football (114), basketball (18), baseball (12), motor racing (six), golf (five), American football (five), ice hockey (five), cricket (four), boxing (three), track and field (three), rugby (two), tennis (two), badminton, cycling, motorcycle racing, sumo wrestling and yachting (all one each).
Baseballer Alex Rodriguez (United States) and boxer Manny Pacquiao (Philippines) topped the list, leading all sports earners in their respective countries with a cool $US32 million ($NZ40 million).
At the other end of the scale was the delightfully named Michael Junior Jackson, a sprinter who led all Niue sportspeople with $US5000.
New Zealand's leading earner was listed as yachting boss Russell Coutts ($US10 million), while Australia's was NBA basketballer Andrew Bogut ($US11 million).
• Dazzling Duncan
Palmerston motocross star Courtney Duncan has had plenty of attention for her extraordinary exploits on dirt.
But it has only just been made clear how special her win at the national junior championships was at Easter.
Duncan (15) beat nearly 30 boys - many of them a year older, and most of them bigger - to claim the 13-16 years 85cc class in Tokoroa.
It was the first time a female had won a non-gender specific New Zealand motocross championship title.
"I've won titles at major events like the Woodville Motocross and at the national TT championships, but never at the motocross nationals, so this victory is pretty special to me," Duncan told Motorcycling NZ.
"I don't know whether I will defend this title next year. I might be too big for an 85cc bike but I will definitely be going for another title, perhaps next time on a 125."
• Todd for three?
What a remarkable effort by Mark Todd to win Badminton for a fourth time, and 31 years after his first victory.
Is a third Olympic gold in London now a distinct possibility?
And would that launch Todd into the upper tier of the pantheon of New Zealand Olympic greats occupied by Peter Snell, Danyon Loader, Ian Ferguson and the Evers-Swindells?
