It will be years before the stain of the Otago rugby crisis is washed away.
For some, I suspect the past few weeks have left such a sour taste in the mouth the mere mention of the letters O, R, F and U run together will provoke a gagging reflex.
I am pleased for Otago assistant coach Phil Young and captain Eben Joubert and other good rugby people like them, and for those (diminishing) supporters who simply want to see their team play in the national championship.
But let's be clear: it would not have been a "tragedy" had the ORFU gone under, and Otago been unable to field a team in the ITM Cup.
It would have been the ultimate wake-up call for anyone who believes an arrogant, irresponsible rugby union can continue to operate like a mad dictatorship.
In the end, the Dunedin City Council was left with a choice between a bad situation and a worse situation. Neither was the right choice, but one had to be made.
• Some final questions
Who will go to a North-South game featuring no All Blacks?
Wouldn't the All Blacks have played at Forsyth Barr Stadium in 2013 and 2014 anyway?
And where would the Highlanders play if not at the new stadium?
Why was there no real accountability for the mess in which the ORFU found itself?
Will previous chief executives Russell Gray and Richard Reid ever talk about their roles in the debacle?
• Tight squeezes
Here's an illustration of how easy it is, in this sport-saturated era, to forget what happens from one season to the next.
After the Highlanders clinched their one-point win over the Waratahs last Saturday, taking their record to a perfect 3-0 to start the season, someone asked me on Twitter when the team last began with three straight wins.
Er, maybe never, was my vague response.
A quick scan of the records the next day revealed I was hopelessly wrong. The Highlanders had twice previously started the season 4-0. And in fact, this was the second season in a row they had started 3-0.
I digress. The most salient point about the Highlanders' great start, and the reason previous Highlanders teams would have lost all three, is the ability of this team to close out tight games.
Winning margins have been four points, three points and one point. All games were in the balance till the final whistle, indicating the Highlanders have the ability to, as the basketball world would say, perform in the clutch.
Look back as recently as 2008 to 2010, the three-year period when Glenn Moore coached a team that was competitive but had an extraordinary number of gallant losses.
In those three seasons, the Highlanders played in 20 games decided by seven points or less, losing a staggering 16 of them.
• Talent trumps all
The other significant factor behind the Highlanders' success, of course, is the presence of better players in several positions.
There are few coaches in any sport who can win consistently without star power in their team.
If you disagree with that statement, tell me who you would rather have:Andrew Hore or David Hall?
Nasi Manu or Steven Setephano?
Colin Slade or Daniel Bowden?
Tamati Ellison or Jason Shoemark?
Hosea Gear or Fetu'u Vainikolo?
• Worst Highlanders XV
We named our best Highlanders XV yesterday to mark tonight's milestone of 200 games for the franchise.
Just for fun, shouldn't we balance that with a worst Highlanders XV?
In a light-hearted spirit, let's try this XV made up of the forgotten, the unlucky and the occasionally hopeless:Glen Horton, Ryan Glover, Brett Mather, Aaron Bancroft, Lucky Mulipola (captain), Mark Urwin, Toby Morland, Colin Bourke, Hale T-Pole, Chris England, Daniel Quate, Hayden Triggs, Murray Driver, Eugene Morgan, Nick White.
• Dirty tactics
My new rugby pet hate has nothing to do with verbose referees, drop goals, TV commentators, the Crusaders or playing loud music DURING the game.
It is the number of sneaky cheap shots being delivered to players who have just scored a try.
You see it again and again: a bloke dives over the line, and half a second later he gets a 100kg behemoth firing into his back like a missile.
It's grubby and it's dangerous, and it's time the judiciary kept a closer eye on it.
• Nuggets fever
My streak is broken.
Normally, when I fill in for ODT basketball writer Adrian Seconi, the Otago Nuggets romp to victory.
My record was dashed last weekend but that did not detract from my enjoyment of being back in the hoops fold.
The thrum-thrum-thrum of ball on hardwood, the theatrics of the coaches, the athleticism of the players, the greatest Otago player of all time ...
brilliant stuff.
There is still a huge appetite for basketball in Otago. Now, hopefully, that will be matched by a decent-performing Nuggets team. A win over these lippy Southlanders tomorrow would be a nice start.
• Hole mix-up
Holes in one are always exciting but English golfer Paul Casey thought he had double reason to be excited last weekend.
Casey aced the par-three 15th hole at the WGC-Cadillac Championship, just moments after promising to split any reward with caddy Craig Connelly.
Both men were rather excited to see a shiny new Cadillac at the back of the tee box, presumably the reward for a perfect shot.
"We shook on the tee. I said, 'If I hole it I'll split the prize with you, whether it's a car, cash prize, we'll split the prize,"' Casey said"We shook on it, he handed me the eight-iron, I knocked it in the hole, and Craig went bananas."
An official quickly stepped in to break the news the car was the prize only on another par-three hole.
• Full Marks
Linsanity - the excitement surrounding the emergence of New York Knicks basketball phenomenon Jeremy Lin - has subsided, as Lin himself has returned to playing like a mere mortal and the Knicks have resumed their losing ways.
But I must share this little note before the buzz completely fades away.
At the start of the season, ESPN ranked the 500 best players in the NBA.
Lin, virtually unknown, was all the way down at 467.
Just above him, at 466?
Our very own Sean Marks, New Zealand's NBA pioneer. That's something to tell the grandkids about.
• Birthday of the week
Bobby Jones would have been 110 on this fine St Paddy's Day.
Before there was Tiger, before there was Jack, before there was Arnie and before there was Hogan, there was Robert Tyre Jones jun, golf's first superstar.
He made history by winning the original grand slam (US Open, British Open, US amateur, British amateur) in 1930. Shortly after, he retired from competition and helped establish Augusta and the Masters.
