John Plumtree took a young Wellington side to the 2003 NPC final when many didn't think the side could make it. The match was lost 41-29 to Auckland, but Plumtree had made his statement towards his future.
Ironically, Plumtree and Wellington were poles apart when the tall former Hawke's Bay, Taranaki and Natal lock/loose forward and former Swansea coach arrived back in New Zealand.
He had five years at Swansea, winning the Welsh Cup in 1998-99 and the Welsh championship in 1997-98 and 2000-2001. So he had a pretty useful CV.
He and his family settled in Waikato and Plumtree admits he was watching Waikato's fortunes more closely than any other side. But the chance of Wellington's job came along, and he applied - and got it.
"It was a case of seeing what jobs were available when I got back. As it turned out, I was really interested in Waikato because I was living there. I was watching their progress more than any other team. I didn't have too much of an interest in Wellington, to be honest," Plumtree said.
"I didn't know too much about them. I was really coming in from the cold."
Plumtree spent his first months back in New Zealand the previous year as new All Black coach John Mitchell's video analyst. The pair had come to know each other well when Plumtree was at Swansea and Mitchell coached Sale.
Thus the interest in Waikato.
But having taken the Wellington job, Plumtree's given it everything, along with assistant Chris Boyd.
The season was always going to be a difficult one because of Rugby World Cup commitments for leading players like Tana Umaga, Jerry Collins etc. Then the squad was struck with a massive list of injuries in build-up games, and these continued through to the final days of the campaign.
Therefore Plumtree's hand was forced. With experienced forwards Kupu Vanisi, Luke Andrews and Shane Carter out, Carter and Vanisi for the season, Plumtree had to promote youth.
It was the same in the backs. Pita Alatini, Jonah Lomu, etc, the list of players unavailable goes on.
That's where Wellington's organisation of its youth base in recent years started to show its ever-increasingly important hand.
"The academy is doing very well," Plumtree says, "and all the people on the union are working very hard to make things better. Playerwise there's good depth.
"Rugby World Cup year was always going to be difficult with the loss of those players, and there were times when we were worried about positions not having the depth - like when we lost Lomu and Alatini."
Enter Conrad Smith, Piri Weepu and Sireli Bobo in the backs, Thomas and Scott Waldrom, Neemia Tialata, Luke Mahoney and Ross Kennedy in the forwards.
"I'm really impressed with some of these youngsters coming through. Things turned out okay in the end. There are some fine young players for the future who are getting a good grounding through the academy system.
"World Cup year was a real plus for teams like us, Auckland and Canterbury. All of a sudden these three have a massive player base. In our case players like Tialata and Tamati Ellison would never have dreamed at the start of the year that they would be playing an NPC final at the end of the season."
Following his 2003 success, Plumtree, together with Chris Boyd guided the Lions to two more finals in 2004 and 2006, where the team lost out to Canterbury and Waikato respectively.
Under Plumtree and Boyd the Vodafone Wellington Lions had an outstanding year in their 125th anniversary season in 2004, ending the regular season of the Air New Zealand as top qualifiers for the first time since the playoff system was introduced in 1992 and for the first time overall since 1986.
Rodney So'oialo was an inspired choice as captain, and the team beat Waikato 28-16 in the home semi-final, but were unable to repeat their first round win over Canterbury, the young Lions team defeated 27-40 in what was also their fourth NPC final in the past six years.
Subsequently, six players - Tana Umaga, Jerry Collins, So'oialo, Ma'a Nonu, Conrad Smith and Piri Weepu - made the All Blacks end of year tour to Europe, the highest Wellington All Blacks representation since 1984.
In 2005 Plumtree had the honour of coaching the Lions against the touring British and Irish Lions, the team eventually going down 6-23 in a spirited performance in difficult conditions. The Lions only managed fifth in the NPC, but a 14-15 loss to Canterbury in a Ranfurly Shield challenge that also shut them out of the top four could have turned an underperforming season into a great one if they had won.
Plumtree's final year at the helm in 2006 also coincided with a change in structure and format to the National Provincial Championship, with Plumtree again almost guiding the team to glory in the new Air New Zealand Cup. Quarterfinal and semi-final wins over Canterbury and Auckland were undone when Waikato beat them 37-31 in his last game in charge.
At the end of 2006 he moved to South Africa to take up the role as assistant coach of the Sharks in the Super 14, taking over the top job at Durban in 2008 following the appointment of previous head coach Dick Muir to the Springboks coaching staff.