It wasn't quite a case of the Petone Village splitting from the Wellington Rugby Union when Earle Kirton was appointed at the end of 1985 - but certainly Kirton wasn't shouted a beer in the Petone clubrooms.
Kirton had returned to New Zealand from London in 1982, hungry to offer his coaching skills to New Zealanders. And he had the form background to warrant his enthusiasm.
He had been coaching Harlequins, Middlesex (one county championship and second in another) and coached London Counties against the touring All Blacks.
It was even mooted in some quarters that Kirton was in line to coach England, but he was "given" the message that the job would go to an Englishman. But when Kirton returned to New Zealand, the message he received was: "Go back to club rugby and work your way up."
But he says he had been through the mill for long enough and didn't have the time left to do it again. In typical Kirton manner he suggests the major problem was his "Pommy accent, smoking a cigar, having the scarf drapped around his neck - and having a camel-haired coat as well" was what counted against him.
That and the fact that Ian Upston had the Wellington team and was building a reasonable record.
So Kirton worked away, stood for the No 1 post in 1984 and was defeated, had a crack at setting-up a Wellington sevens team with some success, and then was shocked when he was finally given the job at the end of 1985.
"I didn't think I had much chance. I didn't believe it when I got it," Kirton said. "The reaction wasn't good - in fact it was shocking. No-one at Petone would speak to me and that made it difficult."
It took a while to sort out his top squad and team leadership. Clearly some players wanted to keep playing the same style they had under Upston, but Kirton was determined to have his way. He wanted to entertain, to win by attacking wide.
"I did have some difficulty getting my point across early - and the appointment at that stage was for just one year. So I had to produce," Kirton said.
"I thought to myself - ‘I'm not going to go halfway through the year and then realise I've gone down the wrong track. I'm going to do it my way, and I'm going to do it with a bit of style. And if I lost playing my style I would be only to happy to shake the hand of the man who succeeded me and wish him all the best."
Eventually Upston team backbones Murray Mexted and Allan Hewson decided they would retire, and Kirton settled on former King Country prop Kevin Boroevich as his captain and also introduced John Schuster, Lolani Koko and Denis Tocker in the backs - with John Gallagher moved from centre to fullback to accommodate Tocker's high speed.
It worked. Kirton's team won every NPC match in 1986, scored more tries than anyone else, and took the title.
Kirton says the critics said he won because his team "was basically the same as the previous year. But that was rubbish. I had 11 changes or positional changes."
And he was a bit different all round. Players still recall his team talk before the Auckland match in 1986, the best win of the season. Wellington had come back from a win at Otago, had no night training ground - so Kirton had them practicing lineouts under the light thrown by the street lamps on Cobham Drive.
Not a good build-up, so at the team talk Kirton read them Rudyard Kipling's poem "If". The front row forwards struggled with it, but the team played brilliantly.
Not surprisingly he was appointed for 1987, and the run in NPC continued after a poor start to the season in the South Pacific Championship.
Wellington was unbeaten all the way through to the Ranfurly Shield match with the great Auckland side near the end of the season. Kirton shocked many by moving playmaker Steve Pokere from first-five to centre and moving a runner in Tim Perez to he inside spot. The critics said Perez couldn't kick. Kirton said he wasn't there to kick - "he was there to run."
With 15 minutes to go it was 18-all and Pokere beat Joe Stanley to put wing Paul Simonssen away. He was clear, but the referee called it back for a forward pass. To this day Kirton insists it was OK.
"The next try was going to win it. That would have been it."
But Auckland came back and scored to late tries to grab the match - and the NPC title.
So ended the Kirton run, and he was to become an All Black selector in 1988. But 19 wins from 20 was certainly a strong answer to those who said anyone who wore a scarf like Ernie Kirton did could not coach.