On Friday night photographer George Novak and I took the relaxing drive over to Rotorua's International Stadium to watch the Chiefs and Blues in a Super Rugby warm-up match.
The Chiefs were impressive in their attention to detail, how well structured they were and the lack of mistakes in a game played at a fast clip.
There was time for our boy Sam Cane to show how good he is with ball in hand - and how big he is after a summer in the gym - until he fell awkwardly in a tackle and hobbled off with ankle and knee injuries that will sideline him for three to four weeks.
A great crowd of around 7000 turned up in Rotorua and I guess many had come to see the Bay's prodigal son Benji Marshall back home playing rugby after 12 years away as a rugby league star in Sydney.
If they did then they were out of luck. He was as awful as the rest of the Blues and surprisingly did not even have a club first-five's punting and drop kicking skills. He was hesitant on attack, nowhere to be seen on defence, and up against the classy Aaron Cruden looked out of his depth. Bay first-five Chris Noakes looked the business when he replaced Marshall.
