But it shouldn't be a night which he should forget; long-term it should prove to be a great learning curve for the All Black halfback on when it is time to keep his emotions slightly more in check.

Cowan was eventually put out of his misery in the 60th minute at Eden Park, shown a red-card by Stuart Dickinson which a Sanzar judiciary later ruled should never been awarded.

Earlier in the night he waged a lengthy battle with Dickinson over his rulings and he was penalised for some over-zealous rucking.

Initially I was taken aback to hear the nature of Cowan's verbal approaches to Dickinson; it was an approach miles apart from that taken by so many other New Zealand rugby captains at test and Super Rugby level in recent times.

But was it really that bad?

I don't think so.

Cowan's players were getting illegally taken out around the fringes of the breakdown. And as captain, it is his job to ensure the referee did something about it.

After slightly more polite requests to Dickinson to do something about it were ignored, he took a more direct approach.

It is something which could easily have been straight out of the George Gregan book of captaincy.

Remember him? He was a member of the leadership group of the Wallabies' 1999 Rugby World Cup-winning side and then captained the team to the 2003 final.

And throughout his captaincy career he never backed off giving it to the refs when he felt aggrieved - and it was a policy which generally worked for him.

When you consider the players that Highlanders coach Glenn Moore has on his books, Cowan is clearly the right man to lead the team.

Without meaning any disrespect to those in the Highlanders team, their playing stocks are modest when compared to some of the more-fancied Super 14 franchises.

They have just three All Blacks on their roster.

While they also include some rising talent who have bright futures ahead of them - and that includes the likes of Israel Dagg, Daniel Bowden, Jayden Hayward and Clint Newland - their playing roster also includes a host of players who wouldn't get in rival New Zealand sides.

For them to be competitive, and beat, some of the Super 14 high-flyers, in some cases they have to play above the level normally seen from them.

And that is where Cowan's 'take no prisoners' approach comes through.

He holds no fear on the field.

It was an attitude he showed regularly during his two-year period in the international wilderness; a stint which finally saw him earn a justified recall last year.

Cowan is an emotional player.

And it is his emotional approach, combined with his feisty competitiveness, that makes him a test-class player.

To take away any of those traits would massively weaken the on-field impact he offers.

Sure, he could have approached things a tad differently at times at Eden Park, but to call for the Highlanders to axe him as captain is a little rich.

What do think?

Is Cowan the right man to lead the Highlanders? Or should they go for someone a bit more laidback?