He came to Dunedin just as one of the best Otago teams of any generation was taking shape and he showed plenty of guile and tact in his playing career.
Then when coaching the Highlanders he has shown astute selection in picking and discarding players over the past near-on six years.
Joseph showed another good bit of timing when he left the Japanese city of Kumamoto last week just a few hours before the city was hit by an earthquake.
Joseph said he had been impacted by the earthquake and had a lot of friends still in the area.
"I left the day of the earthquake in Kumamoto, where I spent eight years and I have got a lot of friends there,'' he said.
"I feel really saddened by the earthquakes and what has happened. In New Zealand we have had a lot of earthquakes ourselves and a lot of friends and family have been hurt by that.
"As a country we have been affected by that. My sympathy really goes out to the people of Japan.''
Kumamoto is a city of more than 700,000 on the southern island of Kyushu which was hit by an initial 6.5 magnitude earthquake last Thursday, followed by a stronger 7.3 quake one and a-half days later.
Joseph played and coached in Japan after he left Otago at the end of the 1995 season and ended up playing for Japan in the World Cup in 1999.
He was appointed the new coach of the Japan team in January and will take up that appointment after the conclusion of this year's Super rugby season.
He will be based in Tokyo.