IT seemed almost symbolic that just hours after David Davies – a man with a very impressive track record – was brought in to sort out Edinburgh Rugby's troubles, the club announced that Netani Talei would be leaving the club.
Perhaps the two are completely unrelated but in many ways the Fijian captain's performances over the past two seasons have embodied both the best and, later, the worst of Edinburgh's play.
Last season the No.8 was man-of-the-match in half of their pool matches as they won their Heineken Cup pool on their way to making history as the first Scottish team ever to reach the semi-finals of European rugby's most prestigious club and provincial tournament. On those occasions he looked every inch the international leader, dominating matches magnificently at key periods as he took the game to the opposition.
Yet the 30-year-old has, this season, been in and out of the side and, when given the chance has seemed almost invisible at times during a campaign that has extended an already dismal run.
It is a measure of their desperate inconsistency that Edinburgh will attempt, this Friday, to do something they have failed to manage under three separate head coaches – Rob Moffat, Nick Scrivener and Michael Bradley – in more than two and a half years: win a third successive domestic league match.
To put that in context, among their current rivals in the bottom half of the Rabo-Direct Pro12 table, Treviso have won all of their last three matches, and Friday's opponents Connacht were on a similar streak before losing their last game.
Netani joined the Murrayfield side from Worcester Warriors in 2010, making 51 appearances.
"I'd like to thank the club, the coaches, the players and the fans for making me feel right at home Edinburgh for a fantastic three years," was Talei's response to the news that his contract would not be extended beyond this summer.
"It's that time in the season and I'm at a point in my career when players often look for other opportunities and, while I'll miss a lot of great friends at the club, I'm looking forward to the next change and challenge in my career, but the season isn't over for me yet, I want to leave the club on a high and help them win the next three games.
"I'll always be a fan of the club and wish them all the best in the season ahead."
Caretaker coach Stevie Scott, who stands to complete a three-game winning streak in just his third match if he can add the scalp of Connacht to those of then leaders Ulster and Zebre, said: "Netani is a popular figure with the fans. He has been a great asset to Edinburgh Rugby over the years. I'm sure all the club's fans will join us in wishing him all the best in the future."
Quite right too, because at his very best Talei could be unstoppable, that series of man-of-the-match Heineken Cup performances briefly earning him the right to be compared with the likes of the talismanic Todd Blackadder as one of the finest players ever to represent the club.
There is, though, something fundamentally wrong in the extent to which this club – which contains the dual fire-power of Tim Visser, Europe's most consistent finisher of the past four seasons, and Greig Laidlaw, one of the game's most reliable goal-kickers – has struggled to put successive wins together.
They had registered just four in all in 23 matches this season before Scott and Duncan Hodge were shifted across from the Scotland management team to take interim charge.
The duo has already made a decent argument for keeping those positions permanently and the case will be even more compelling if, as the team is good enough to do, they win more matches in their five games in charge than Bradley and Neil Back managed all season.
What we do know for certain is that whoever is in charge of playing matters next season will be answerable to a new man in the shape of David Davies, who will replace Craig Docherty, the current chief executive.
It is typically confusing of Scottish Rugby Union owners that while Docherty is moving to another department in the organisation Davies, the former London Wasps and Queen Park Rangers chief executive, is being described this time not as chief executive but as managing director. Whatever the title, he has certainly been busy in the past decade; those jobs with Wasps and QPR preceded a two-year spell managing high profile pop bands, venues and more than 2000 concerts. And most recently, he was responsible for New Zealand's newest and largest indoor stadium in Dunedin.
However, given that one of Edinburgh's biggest problems down the years has been the fact that the team has to play games at Murrayfield, a stadium which is far too large for them, their supporters might be most interested in noting that it was Davies in charge at Wasps when they moved out of the English capital to High Wycombe's Adams Park.
He takes over next Monday but, according to the statement issued by the club yesterday, will not be formally introduced to the wider world until "the coming weeks". In the meantime, he will be eased in the position, taking the opportunity to shadow the outgoing chief executive.
"I'd like to thank Craig Docherty and his team for all the hard work that predates my appointment, and look forward to working with them in the coming seasons to build on their successes," he was quoted in that statement as saying.
"I feel privileged to get this opportunity as there is a huge amount of potential in the club from which a very bright future can be shaped. It's a very exciting time for the club and I'm delighted to be part of it."
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