KEY POINTS:
It might not be as pronounced as the first round of major tremors suggested, but the national rugby landscape has still endured a seismic shift.
Manawatu's victory over Canterbury, Counties Manukau's defeat of Auckland and Northland's upset of Waikato in that tumultuous first round made it look awfully
like the sky had fallen in on the established order of provincial rugby supremacy in this country.
For those in the provinces who had stewed for years about the unfair advantages enjoyed by the Super Rugby host unions, the opening weekend must have been nirvana indeed.
In the end, though, it was just one weekend. In the six rounds that have followed, the three teams that pulled off those remarkable upsets have managed precisely no more wins among them. Nada, nought, zip, zero.
Northland and Counties have lost all of their subsequent matches, many of them quite appallingly, while Manawatu, who have been more competitive, have managed just a draw against Waikato.
The darlings of round one look destined to finish in the bottom three places. The only question is, in which order?
At the top, too, order seems to have been maintained, with regular heavyweights Wellington and Canterbury looking the class acts in the competition. Both unions have retained an established core of provincial veterans, enabling them to drip feed emerging talent into stable and successful sides.
But in the middle of the table there are signs that genuine change has taken place. The most telling indicator of that is the TAB's odds for this weekend's two marquee matches. Hawkes Bay head into their clash against Waikato strong $1.50 favourites in a contest that fast seems to be shaping into a genuine rivalry.
The most intriguing part of that rivalry is that it is the Magpies who seem to have the upper hand.
If they win tomorrow - and they probably will - it will be three straight wins over a Waikato side that just two years ago were crowned champions. Given that just a year before that Hawkes Bay were still toiling in the second division, the speed of each union's reversal in fortunes has been remarkable.
In just a couple of seasons Hawkes Bay have built a team that boasts a toughened core of experienced provincial players, while Waikato have been stripped to their bare bones.
In a way, Waikato's biggest problem has been their success in producing or recruiting top-tier All Blacks.
A team traditionally stacked with quality players, many of whom weren't considered quite up to All Blacks status, has begun contributing the likes of Mils Muliaina, Richard Kahui, Brendon Leonard and Sitiveni Sivivatu to the national cause.
And with so many players heading overseas earlier and earlier in their careers, the province's production line has struggled to fill the void.
Auckland have found themselves in a similar situation. In what is probably an unprecedented turn of events, the holders are rated as $3 outsiders to defend the Ranfurly Shield on the hallowed turf of Eden Park.
Had it not been for last week's stunning turnaround against Bay of Plenty, the defending champions were facing the very real prospect of not even making the playoffs just a season later.
At the same time, the likes of Southland and Hawkes Bay have been able to build steady - but not startlingly good - teams that look capable of featuring in upper tier of the competition for some time to come.
After round one, NZRU chief Steve Tew remarked that the player drain appeared to have levelled off the competition quicker than anyone expected. It now seems that levelling off wasn't as dramatic as first thought.
While those teams that have made genuine progress have been able to sustain it, the biggest concern for the game is that, rather than the struggling unions raising their games, round one now looks awfully like a case of the big boys having dropped theirs.
Levelling off a competition is one thing. But setting that level at the lowest common denominator is quite another.
