Nature abhors a vacuum and so does a genuine rugby fan, so we shall use this rugby-free weekend to recharge the batteries and to prepare for the ITM Cup, and to be thankful for the respite before we head into a competition that somehow manages to fit 79 games into 74 days.
Not that anyone is complaining, except maybe a few of the coaches, like the one who told me just yesterday that he was considering putting his own boots on for a pre-season fixture given he was one injured player away from a 50 per cent squad injury rate. However, I'm sure he will get through, and so will his side. Besides, we've already seen the Hammers of Mid Canterbury beat Southland in a pre-season fixture. There is precedent for upsets here. And excuses.
There will be no excuses come next Thursday night when the Amber-and-Blacks will be unveiling a live bull to complement their mechanised Ferdy as an official team mascot ahead of their match with Counties Manukau. Despite the fact that not since Rory the Stag had one too many Tuis and impaled a Sky Sport floor manager on a stray antler has there been this much potential for sideline carnage, let us just console ourselves with the age-old rhetorical question: what could go wrong?
This is undoubtedly a big year for Colin Cooper's Taranaki. And beef exports.
Counties Manukau, for its part, might well be thinking ahead to the following Saturday when Otago comes calling for another crack at the Log o' Wood. EcoLight Stadium is one of the great provincial venues: it has a bank, a Scotsman's stand, a live goat, a good curry (which could be goat) and potentially the best hot dogs in rugby. If that's not enough to get you to a game, then watching Dan Hyatt and Maama Vaipulu and Onasai'i Auva'a form one of the most brutal looseforward trios in the provincial game might just get you over the line.