John McKee has just about covered the waterfront in his union career: the New Zealander knows what it is to coach teams in the south-western heartland of England and the far-flung wilds of rural Ireland; he can look back on stints in the win-or-bust world of French club rugby – he was on the staff at Clermont Auvergne when the Top 14 powerhouses still called themselves Montferrand – and on the high-performance Junior Wallaby production line in Australia. One way or another, he has seen it all.