Pool D Graham Henry had been coach of Wales for only a couple of months when he likened support for rugby in the country to a temperamental shower: either too hot or too cold, depending on how the national side was doing at the time.
Victory and defeat, he maintained, were greeted by an equal lack of proportion, and the man hailed as the great redeemer after a 10-match winning streak in 1999 became the eighth successive Wales coach to fail to last his full term - since John Dawes retired at the end of the 1970s - when he resigned in February last year.
Henry's successor, a fellow New Zealander, Steve Hansen, will surely make it nine if Wales lose to Italy in Canberra today, in a match that should guarantee the victors a place in the quarter-finals and the losers an early journey home.
"Sacking the coach is the easy option," Hansen said on Thursday, "and the fact it has happened so often over the last 20 years or so is a reflection of how the game has been administered in Wales. It means a coach is hamstrung when he takes over because, if he looks to the long term rather than the short term, he is unlikely to last the course.
"You need a real strength of character and a thick skin to survive in this job. Criticism abounds without reference to reality, and the key, to me, is not to take it personally. You have to remain true to your beliefs, otherwise you would go mad.
"I can still look myself in the mirror and say that I am doing things for reasons which are right for Welsh rugby.
"When I took over, I took decisions with the long term in mind, and that meant getting a structure in place which meant the Wales coach became just one piece in the jigsaw puzzle, rather than the man who had to carry the whole burden on his shoulders."
Hansen pressed for Wales to end their 120-year-old club game and replace it with regional rugby, and academy systems are now in place to prepare young players for the professional game. But the reaction in the principality to Sunday's laboured victory over Tonga showed that Henry's shower will take some fixing.
"A problem in Wales is that, even though it is obvious there are better ways of doing things, there are people who do not accept the need to change," he added. "That is why as the national coach you need to be strong. There are tough times ahead, but the tunnel is getting shorter and the light at its end is becoming brighter."
That brightness will either grow or fall in the aftermath of today's encounter.
WALES: K Morgan; M Jones, S Parker, I Harris, G Thomas; C Sweeney, D Peel; C Charvis (capt), M Williams, D Jones, G Llewellyn, B Cockbain, A Jones, R McBryde, D Jones. Replacements: M Davies, G Jenkins, R Sidoli, J Thomas, G Cooper, S Jones, R Williams.
ITALY: G Canale; N Mazzucato, C Stoica, A Masi, D Dallan; R Wakarua, A Troncon (capt); S Parisse, A Persico, A de Rossi, S Dellape, C Checchinato, L Castrogiovanni, C Festuccia, A Lo Cicero. Replacements: F Ongaro, S Perugini, M Phillips, S Palmer, C Bezzi, F Mazzariol, M Bergamasco.
Referee: Andrew Cole (Australia)
