If the new All Black coaching team was a Christmas present, what would you do?
Head straight to the shops at 9am on Boxing Day and get in the exchange line?
Jump around with sheer joy as though gold, frankincense and myrrh had been delivered?
Or just tuck it away as a present which is fine but not something you have dreamed about for weeks on end?
Probably the last option.
The team of Steve Hansen, Ian Foster, Aussie McLean and Grant Fox, with Mick Byrne helping out, is good enough and should do the job, but is someway short of a dream team.
When Hansen joined Graham Henry and Wayne Smith in late 2003 there could be no complaints, no question marks.
They were the best around, by some margin.
But with this lot, there is not that some assurance.
Foster has a patchy record with the Chiefs, McLean has been floating around the scene for a while, with different teams, while Fox knows his rugby inside out but will he watch the other team when Auckland or the Blues play?
Because Henry stayed around for eight years, the coaches who were next off the rank, and would have been given the job no questions asked, have already left.
Robbie Deans and Warren Gatland have moved to other national coaching jobs, while Colin Cooper never put his hand up, although he would have never been picked.
The folly of appointing David Nucifora to the Blues a few years ago is now becoming obvious.
Out of the five Super 15 coaches this season, Foster was the only one with the necessary experience to be in with a chance.
The Waikato man seems a nice enough guy and maybe that is what is needed to balance Hansen, who can be blunt and will never list How to win friends and influence people as his favourite book.
Hansen came to the All Black job after an average coaching record with Wales, and he did well.
Foster could do the same, though he should leave his Chiefs play book at the door.
The Chiefs were awful at times and hardly ever played to their potential.
Is that not what a coach has to do? Get players to play as well as they can?
The jury is still out whether Foster can do that.
As for McLean, if he is a good coach why was he never given the job as a head coach of a Super 15 franchise?
There are always doubts swirling in the back of the mind about guys who have had plenty of different jobs yet never land the big one.
He is close to Hansen - they are in business together - but is that a good thing?
McLean obviously suffered from being behind Deans, so he never got a crack at the Crusaders until it was too late.
As for Fox, his role is one of a selector. That could be the most important of jobs, as picking the right team is the biggest part of running the All Blacks.
Fox knows his stuff, there is no doubt about that, and should do well in his new role. But let's hope he knows what exactly his role is and what it is not.
But the merits and demerits of the coaching staff are really in the laps of the 15 men on the field.
Those men will decided Hansen and Co's future.
The first fundamental of being a good coach is having good players.
After all there are two types of coaches - those with good players. And ex-coaches.
