The opening weekend of Super Rugby Pacific left us with plenty of great tries and some quality rugby played in spite of the at-times horrendous conditions in Sydney and Brisbane.
The NSW Waratahs' 40-10 win over the Fijian Drua on debut created plenty of headlines, mostly for the fact it ended a 538-day win drought for the sky blues, the end of a losing streak that dated back to August 2020.
But while plenty of credit was being thrown the way of new Waratahs coach Darren Coleman, and a win on debut is certainly an achievement in itself, he was quick to deflect the praise to those people still in the organisation who didn't have a great time of it during the winless 2021 season.
"I'm just really happy for guys like Jake and Gilly and Whits and the staff and players that went through what they went through last year," he said, of skipper Jake Gordon sitting right beside him after the match, and of assistants Jason Gilmore and Chris Whitaker, who found themselves in charge last season when the Waratahs ended head coach Rob Penney's tenure mid-season.
"I've only just jumped in here, so for me, yeah, it was a monkey off the back, but for them, they should be really happy and feeling really good about themselves, because that's been a while coming," Coleman said.
The reactions of the players on the ground were telling, as the celebrations raged while the heavens opened above Western Sydney Stadium.
The Waratahs were very good and all the headlines were well-earned but they were quick to bring things back with some perspective: yes, they'd won their first game in 18 months, but competition debutants aren't yet at the level of more fancied rivals they're about to face.
"I think we're keeping it in check," Coleman said.
"With all due respect to the Drua, it was a win at home against a new team. It wasn't like we beat the Chicago Bulls. We understand there are much bigger challenges coming."
Most notably, the Queensland Reds this Friday night. Suddenly, the oldest rivalry in Australian rugby has taken on renewed interest.
Of the debutants, the Fijian Drua took some of the Waratahs' spoiling and niggling as a massive compliment.
"It was interesting. Two games against Australian teams (the Drua played a pre-season clash with the Melbourne Rebels) and every time a whistle goes for a free kick someone gets the ball and throws it 30 metres away," Drua head coach Mick Byrne noted.
"They're obviously understanding of and respect us. They know what we can do, and teams will try to do things like that. It slows the game down, the niggle starts, the pulling of players … they're not letting us get on with the game and we learnt from that.
"Having faced it now, there's a lot of things that go on to try and take your mind off the game."
The Drua have numerous areas to work on – their set piece and surprisingly low offload numbers, to name a couple of obvious ones – but the fact existing teams are already trying to slow them down and take away any semblance of momentum speaks to their potential danger.
The aforementioned Reds were 'happy to get the win' over the Melbourne Rebels, but in reality, they weren't overly thrilled with how they got it.
"There's not too many positives," new co-captain Tate McDermott said on the field immediately after the match, rain still tumbling down.
"It was pretty ugly, to be honest. Similar errors to what we discussed last year, an inability to hold the ball for periods of time was pretty disappointing from our point of view.
"I guess it's an ugly win. But it's a good start and a win's a win."
Clearly, the Reds are setting the benchmark high after last year's Super Rugby AU title, but that was nothing compared to the scathing critique new Rebels skipper Michael Wells offered after the 23-5 loss.
"Can't blame conditions for how we played. We had a good game plan to come in and we didn't execute," Wells said.
"We've got to get away from a culture of excuses. To blame the weather's probably not good enough, we've got to blame ourselves."
Wells would later describe his leadership as "pretty black and white". He's not wrong there.
The Rebels host the Western Force in Melbourne on Saturday night, and the West Australians will still be kicking themselves for letting a one-point lead slip in Canberra, with the Brumbies somehow finding a match-winning try in the last 90 seconds to win 29-23 in blazing sunshine.
"Against a quality side like the Brumbies, when you get an opportunity, you've got to take them," Force hooker and captain Feleti Kaitu'u said after the "heartbreaking" loss.
"We were just off the mark there, in some key moments, so we'll be looking hard at that this week."
"It was way too close but we managed to get away with it and sneak the points in the end," Brumbies coach Dan McKellar said.
It was round one, after all. No team is at their best but it's interesting that the teams expected to again lead the Australian side of Super Rugby Pacific were a long way from satisfied, despite banking the competition points.
Round two will tell us more about all teams, including the New Zealanders, who continue to grapple with COVID-forced disruptions. Moana Pasifika's competition debut has again been postponed with not all players and staff completely free of isolation and there's a growing concern that the situation across the Tasman is only going to get worse before it gets better.
It's going to make rescheduling already postponed games all the more difficult.
