We have a long history of trashing the high achievers when they stumble on the sports field.

A verbal and vocal equivalent of setting fire to the corpse. There's this convenient form of amnesia that kicks in whereby everything that has been achieved previously is quietly forgotten, or worse still- belittled.

And so it has been with Sir Gordon Tietjens. Most have caught on over the years at his Dumbledore-like qualities that have seen him uncover countless new talents. Going online earlier today to remind myself of some names other than the most obvious ones like Cullen and Lomu etc,  I had to stop writing them all down because the list was getting crazily long.

Sir Flash quietly faced challenges that few coaches never had to consider. Most seasons he had to completely reinvent his team as the talent that he had previously uncovered was subsequently snapped up by Super Rugby franchises. A great many of his players shamelessly used the sevens progamme as a stepping stone towards their All Black (15s) aspirations. No crime in that though. Nary a word of complaint from the Bay of Plenty Knight who clearly took a quiet pride in the way he was able to advance so many careers.

The failure of the Sevens side in Rio was always shaping up to be a slow moving train wreck. The vultures started circling.  As other nations focused on the possibility of winning gold, New Zealand failed to embrace the opportunity and continued to largely take the programme for granted. The game plan also didn't evolve enough. Administrators talked a big game, but only really half heartedly delivered.

However it's unfair to lay all the blame with the Suits. Fifteens players are notoriously sniffy and condescending towards sevens. So while players and fans quite justifiably basked in the overdue glory of back to back World Cup successes, it was business as usual for the Sevens.

Business as usual was never going to cut it. The warning signs were becoming increasingly obvious. The abbreviated form of the game's introduction to the Olympics was globalising rugby by stealth. Other countries understood that- New Zealand didn't. Not with the blokes anyway. Women's playing numbers were already up 12% last year. It'll be fascinating to see how much more growth they get on the back of their silver medal.

Is a comparison to Sir Alex Ferguson accurate ? I'm not sure. Certainly in terms of longevity, it fits. A wee bit like in playing terms- Kelly Slater, Heather McKay, Robby Naish. I'd love to add Michael Phelps or Usain Bolt to the list, but there's the nagging issue of the Plympic medal being missing from the CV of Sir Gordon.

Lets move on. Lets celebrate a remarkable career that is highly unlikely to ever be replicated. It's not being too 20th Century Fox to suggest that Sir Gordon has changed lives through creating enormous opportunities for countless young men. New Zealand Rugby and New Zealand Rugby fans owe him a great deal.

However, never much of a song a dance man, I reckon one simple but important word matters right now for Sir Gordon....... Thanks.