The Crusaders were locked in a dour match (through no fault of their own) with the Sunwolves. What threatened to be a blowout early ended as a comfortable home win after an extended period of torrential downpour in Christchurch.
If that match wasn't an advocate for a covered stadium there, nothing will be.
Meanwhile Marshall was continuing his surprising and impressive form that must surely warrant a call from whoever steps into the Kiwis coaching role, setting up tries with his precision kicking.
But it was the Knights and wunderkind Kalyn Ponga who had the final laugh with a last-minute try to take out an enthralling contest.
There was just more excitement and more tense moments in the NRL contests.
Even when the Chiefs took on the Reds, once the game was basically over at halftime the channel almost demanded to be switched - to the Cowboys-Titans NRL fixture, which was admittedly not a great match, and the Black Ferns' sevens surge.
Outside of the local New Zealand derbies, which could have major ramifications for the All Blacks with the amount of international prospects filling up an overflowing casualty ward, Super Rugby is largely uneventful.
Australian teams are not showing any signs of improvement (they're a ghastly 0-35 against New Zealand teams over the last couple of years) while South African sides play well in patches but it isn't consistent.
Not every game needs to be non-stop action but you want to watch a contest, not a glorified exhibition game.
The NRL is throwing up multiple matches worth watching a week, Super Rugby has at best two. Those two games, always local NZ sides going hell for leather, are scintillating television but outside of that there isn't the same contest there was five years ago.
That's both on the struggling Super Rugby sides and Sanzaar to fix. Until then and maybe even if they do fix it, the Warriors and the NRL will be the better.
