Ireland v Italy: Gerry Thornleymeets the impressively qualified and much travelled South African who in his new role is likely to set fresh problems for Italy's opponents.
Maybe it's due to his roots in the amateur days, rugby being a way of seeing the world and all that. In any event, the game has enabled him to live alternately amid the stunning scenery around Cape Town on the Indian Ocean and the cultural delights of Paris before pitching up amid the piazzas and architecture of Rome. Nick Mallett clearly appreciates the good things in life.
"I love Rome," admits the history graduate. "It's the most beautiful city in the world along with Paris.
"I've made some very good career choices. Cape Town is a beautiful city and then Paris and Rome, so I haven't really gone down in the world," he says, laughing at his own good fortune. And it's as much luck as his own choosing.
"The Italians have been incredibly friendly and helpful and enthusiastic, and I'm living in a beautiful part of Rome, the Parioli region, close to the Villa Borghese in the ambassadorial district. It couldn't be better; the lifestyle is fantastic, the weather there is 10 degrees warmer than London or Paris. Spring comes at the beginning of March and it's really a lovely part of the world."
His taste for Italy dates back to a six-month stint with Rovigo almost 25 years ago.
"In the meantime I've learnt Afrikaans and French so it (fluency in Italian) has fallen a little behind, but I'm picking it up. I reckon the next six weeks will be pretty important for me because I'll be with the Italian team virtually non-stop. Obviously it's by osmosis; the more you hear it, then the more you try and talk it."
On that previous Italian stint, he was with his wife to be, Jane, but for the moment he's been sampling the trattorias of Rome da solo.
"My daughter is 21 now and my son is 19, and they're both at the University of Cape Town so they're going to stay in university. And my wife, who has a business of her own, will commute.
"One of the great things about Europe and South Africa is that there's no jet lag. You can fly in 12 hours overnight, so she will come over for three weeks during the Six Nations."
With his deep voice and articulate style, the 51-year-old Mallet has always cut an impressive as well as a nomadic figure. Born in England, where his father was headmaster at a diocesan college, he was moved to South Africa when just six weeks old.
He played for the University of Cape Town and Western Province before studying in Oxford, winning Blues at rugby and cricket - and famously hitting Ian Botham for three sixes in one over.
That was when Donal Spring first came across Mallett, so starting a friendship that exists to this day.
"He was captain and number eight at Oxford when I was captain and number eight at Trinity," says the Kerryman. "He was a very good footballer, very mobile and very athletic. He has a strong personality and is a big family man. He dedicated his career to rugby at a time when he had a lot of options, and he could have gone into business full-time.
"I would describe him very much as his own man as well as an all-round decent guy. He is a very good coach who has done well wherever he's gone. He comes from the time of the amateur days and has an absolute wealth of coaching experience. He'll do a good job with Italy."
Mallett returned to his native Cape Town once more, winning four successive Currie Cups with Western Province and twice playing for the Springboks. After Rovigo, he began cutting his teeth as a player-coach in lower-division French rugby, first with St Claude in the Alps for five years and then in Paris with AC Boulogne-Billancourt.
Returning once more to South Africa in 1992, he coached False Bay Rugby Club and led Boland to a Currie Cup semi-final before becoming Springboks assistant coach in 1996.
After the disastrous defeat to the Lions and a poor Tri-Nations campaign he took the reins, leading the Boks to a world-record-equalling run of 17 successive wins before they lost their 1999 World Cup semi-final to Australia in extra-time - a truly one-off 45-metre drop goal by Stephen Larkham clinching it.
Ultimately, the Boks won 27 of his 38 matches in charge before he fell out with Sarfu, accusing them of "greed" for selling Tri-Nations tickets at inflated prices and resigning on the eve of a disciplinary hearing against him for "bringing the game into disrepute".
Since guiding Stade Français to French titles in 2003 and 2004, he has been director of rugby at Western Province, a non-coaching role in which he recruited players and coaches and set up a rugby institute.
"I had a 'restraint of trade' for two years because I left my contract at Stade Français early, so then they asked me to coach but I wasn't too keen to coach in South Africa for a number of reasons - obviously the politics. Rugby is stressful enough without having the politics as well. Then there's the financial difference, and the value of the pound or the euro with the rand. And I love Europe . . ."
He's his own man alright.
In taking the reins in Italy, Mallett turned down overtures from the Australian, English and Welsh rugby unions to apply for their vacancies, as he had given a verbal commitment to the Italian Federation president, Giancarlo Dondi.
Quite a coup for Signor Dondi.
Even for a coach who admits "I like a challenge" he accepts that this is the hardest challenge he's ever had. Pierre Berbizier is a tough act to follow. He took Italy to the unprecedented heights of two wins and fourth place last season and to within a kick of the World Cup quarter-finals when they lost their nerve in an 18-16 defeat to Scotland.
Mallett has been busy taking in as many games as possible, as well as visiting the Italian club coaches and hosting a seminar with the under-19, under-20 and A coaches, along with two two-day camps with the Azzurri squad in November and January.
The retirement of the long-serving scrumhalf Alessandro Troncon is, Mallet admits, "a massive loss" - even if Troncon is now part of the management/coaching ticket - and, for the first two games, his successor as captain, Marco Bortolami.
"Nine and 10 are my big challenge," he accepts readily.
"You'll never replace Troncon. He had this huge physicality and an ability to really get after his forwards," adds Mallett, who has selected Parma's 23-year-old Pietro Travagli with the Castres winger Pablo Canavosio as cover in the absence of Treviso's Simon Picone.
"Travagli has got the best pass and the best kick and is very good physically but has had very little experience. Canavosio should have played all his rugby at scrumhalf but went to France to improve his contract and so because he's very quick they stuck him on the wing."
Such is the preponderance of non-Italians generally and outhalves especially, the only other Italians playing outhalf regularly in Europe are the Treviso 24-year-old Andrea Marcato and the discarded Ramiro Pez.
"I've seen him (Pez) and I know what I can get from him, but I just think that a touch more physicality in that position is maybe necessary," explains Mallett, indicating his desire for a strong defence.
Hence, Mallett has decided to invest time in converting the Biarritz centre Andrea Masi to outhalf.
Mallett agrees that Italy started to vary their game more in last season's Six Nations only to retreat into a tactical shell during the World Cup, attributing this to the pressure created by the post-Six Nations demand for a quarter-final and the shock of losing their opening game to the All Blacks 76-14: "I think they then went back to type against Romania and Portugal. When they played Scotland it was almost too late to do anything different."
As for Ireland, he says simply: "If you can get your national side to play like Munster did against Wasps then no problems. It was a full-blooded, tremendous game. Stringer and O'Gara were absolutely outstanding. Every player was playing out of his boots. Wasps are a very physical team and they outmuscled Wasps. I mean you don't have to look any further than that game to solve your problems."
Assuming the old Munster-Leinster axis can gel then Mallett sees no reason why they cannot rescale the heights of two summers ago when extending the All Blacks to 34-23 and 27-17 wins: "For me that was a watershed in international rugby because the two Tests that Ireland played there were, to my mind, better than South Africa or Australia produced against New Zealand in the Tri-Nations."
He knows Italy will be facing a team seeking redemption at, reputedly, an 82,500 sell-out Croke Park, presumably with a sizeable turn-out from the Italian community.
"I'll say to our players that whatever the crowd is, however many Italians are there, it's full credit to them that the crowd are looking for a competitive game and it's up to them to provide it."
