KEY POINTS:
What a performance from Hawkes Bay against Waikato in the big rugby quarter-final. What a wonderful game.
The only dampener on the jubilation that rose with the occasion was the nagging thought that Hawkes Bay must now travel to face the might of Canterbury. It means their enchanting run will probably be squashed at the semifinal point by the red-and-black machine and the almost inevitable return of Richie McCaw.
Countering that, Canterbury don't have an overwhelming record of winning the provincial title, something which is obscured somewhat by the Crusaders' remarkable success.
But their game, which will deny Hawkes Bay position and possession and provide a massive challenge at the breakdown, will probably prove too much for underdogs.
For starters, the instant little houses that Canterbury construct around the ball take a lot more huffing and puffing to blow down than those which Waikato erected half-heartedly yesterday.
Wellington - who are capable of anything including serious lapses - would have been a more enticing semifinal proposition for Hawkes Bay and it could have been a rip-roaring affair.
But it's best not to write off Hawkes Bay here, because their impressive follow-up to last season's charge against the odds - not to mention the way they play the game - deserve much better than that.
They'll have the floating rugby voters cheering them on. And who knows? ... Maybe a glorious upset is in the offing, although McCaw alone is a massive hurdle to overcome.
What an occasion in Napier. A sunny winter's day, a beautiful provincial setting, and a classic clash in front of a roaring crowd.
A moment for the memory banks - the glorious charge in the open by the boom Bay hooker Hika Elliot with the ball swinging about in one of his giant hands. It's a great sight in rugby, and not one you see too often any more.
Rugby used to be like this all the time, and they were great days. Now, for most big occasions, it's all floodlights and staying up till midnight, getting up in the dead of night, or watching replays over breakfast.
Every time you get to enjoy an occasion like this, you wonder just how long it may last as the fully professional game readies itself to take over the season completely.
This is not to pull professional rugby down per se, but it is a beast that contains necessary evils because the game isn't financially strong enough in this little country to survive without serious overseas influences.
But there is still nothing like an all-New Zealand battle to get the heart pumping.
The Blues versus the Cats, the Highlanders versus the Force - for some of us fabricated names and generic teams will never hold the appeal of good old Waikato versus Hawkes Bay.
And in this case, the Magpies - a team that were first-division newcomers and easybeats just a couple of seasons ago - continued a fairytale ride.
After carrying on with the form they showed late against Bay of Plenty, they piled on what turned out to be a winning first-half lead. Their second-half struggles don't bode well for the Christchurch match however.
Can a province like Hawkes Bay really continue to hold its position in this modern arena, when an expanding professional game will pick off more and more talent? Can high enough standards be maintained across the competition to hold wide attention?
The odds are low, especially if the Super 14 is extended, as is inevitable.
So soak up that sun-drenched Napier battle, and get provincial rugby while it's hot now and then.
* Guilt by association - overseas-bound All Black forward Chris Masoe got a rough deal when sent to the sin bin by referee Bryce Lawrence as Wellington beat Taranaki in the Air New Zealand Cup quarter-finals. Masoe was marched along with Taranaki's Nemia Soqeta after a dust up in which the Taranaki replacement threw a fair dinkum punch to Masoe's head and then started bobbing and weaving about as if he thought he was a contender. The peacemakers who turned up must have wished they had a bell and a stool handy. Masoe actually showed admirable restraint to keep a lid on the situation. If Soqeta really wants to step into the ring, he should try it against Masoe's brother Maselino, who was a world class pugilist.
* Hosea Gear is winning rave reviews on the wing for Wellington. Pundits say he is shoe-in for the All Black tour. The mystery is how Anthony Tuitavake and especially Rudi Wulf got the test nod ahead of Gear in the first place.
* The magnificent Richie McCaw is a class act and way too humble in this case. In a Sunday newspaper interview, the All Black captain says the indirect criticisms he received in an NZRU report on last year's World Cup may have helped his career.
That still doesn't exonerate the report though. Nobody should be subjected to criticisms in a public document compiled at the behest of their employer when they were simply doing their best in a demanding situation. So McCaw may have got a few things wrong - that is something to be sorted out between coach and player and not worthy of any part of a public inquiry conducted by a lawyer and a former softball player. The World Cup report was a joke, an exercise in obfuscation by an NZRU which wouldn't own up to its mistakes.
Graham Henry stoutly defended McCaw but he should never have needed to. How would the lawyer who helped compile that review, Mike Heron, feel if his firm asked a quantity surveyor to conduct a high-profile review which touched on his competency as a lawyer? The word injunction springs to mind.
* The non-play of the day. Inexplicably, Bangladesh failed to appeal for a run out against the Black Caps when they were on 168 and with the last partnership of Jacob Oram and Jeetan Patel at the wicket. Replays showed a clear run out. The hosts may have been a major chance to score a shock series win had they mustered up a simple "Howzat". Instead, they faced a much tougher task of scoring over 200. Bangladesh need serious lessons from appealing masters such as the Indians.
