KEY POINTS:
See if this sounds familiar.
Taranaki arrive at Eden Park tonight having won one of their four Air New Zealand Cup games this season. They sit 10th on the table.
Auckland are four from four and, with bonus points from each game, are top on 20 points and playing pretty good football.
Now go back two years. Auckland went to New Plymouth having won all five games to that point and perched at the top of the ladder. Taranaki had won one of five matches. Things were grim.
But Taranaki stirred themselves and gave Auckland a 40-19 tonking.
And that's why Auckland's coach Pat Lam is taking nothing for granted, even though Kieran Crowley's men look out of sorts again this season.
"They have nothing to lose. They come up here and get stuck in, as they've done every year," Lam said.
"They know they've got history on their side, they've beaten Auckland on Eden Park in big games and obviously they'll be disappointed with what's happened so far, so we have to be on our game again."
Lam also scotched any notion that things are looking cut and dried with Auckland and Canterbury, even at this early juncture, seeming set to push through towards the final and certainly offering the lowest odds of making it to the October 20 showdown.
"There's a long way to go yet. We were in this situation last year, four wins on the trot then we came unstuck against Wellington," he said.
Whereas Taranaki have battled to get across the tryline, with only six tries so far, Auckland have notched up 22 this season, and achieved bracing margins: 39-5 over Counties Manukau; 41-3 against Bay of Plenty; 47-26 in a ding-dong contest until they ran away in the final quarter against Waikato; and 44-19 against Southland.
Lam likes what he's seen of the competition so far, pointing to Manawatu's maiden win last weekend after 12 attempts since the competition was rejigged last year, and Hawkes Bay's rousing campaign.
"I think it's fantastic. The key thing, when you set up a competition, is opportunity. There are players we've never heard of coming through and it's really good for New Zealand rugby that this competition allows them to get that chance to play."
