THE NSW Rugby Union board must have a death wish, behaving with all the blind passion of a squadron of kamikaze pilots, hell-bent on bringing the Waratahs down with them in the Super 14 tournament.

On the eve of the semi-final against the South African Sharks tomorrow night, the directors are still pontificating about Ewen McKenzie's successor as head coach of NSW: Will they invite him back? Will they let him go to France? Is there some outsider they have not interviewed after months of searching?

It defies all belief, all logic, that they can be airing, on the record or off it, which candidate they favour, to the point a head count is occurring as to which director will vote for whom.

They are sitting like Humpty Dumpty on the wall, frothing at the mouth, teeth powder flying, agonising before Monday's decision.

Do they support Ed Zemancheff's three-man football committee recommendation about not renewing McKenzie's contract or do they ignore it?

The man they all want is Scott Johnson, the former Sydney coach of the year with the Penrith Emus. His remarkable influence on players and his brilliant analytical mind were seen in 2005 when he engineered Wales' first grand slam in 27 years by claiming the Six Nations championship.

The directors want him, but, more importantly, the players want him.

But Johnson is a man of his word, and he has committed to coaching the United States of America squad. They want him for four years, until the next World Cup in New Zealand in 2011.

Johnson has suggested a two-year contract with a two-year option. Whether he can do justice to the position in the US and tackle the Waratahs position as well is questionable.

When prominent candidate Scott Louden, an assistant to McKenzie, decided the political bun fights in NSW were too much lead weight and headed for the lucrative rugby field of Japan with his young family, it became all the more imperative to secure Johnson.

By then he was deep in negotiation with the Americans.

"It's a disgrace, pathetic," former Parramatta premiership and Sydney representative coach Peter Fenton said yesterday of the fiasco.

"I would be amazed if Johnno went back on his word to the Americans in order to coach NSW. He just wouldn't do it. The one thing you can be assured of is that money will be a minor issue with him."

At a time when both the Waratahs and McKenzie should be focusing purely on defeating the Sharks and continuing on to claim the Super 14 title, distractions about the identity of the new coach keep cascading down around them.