New Zealand's local derbies in Super Rugby have been enjoyable, even only two weeks into the season.
Some of the form of a lot of players has been most impressive. It looks like they have the British & Irish Lions tour in the back of their minds already.
And at the risk of sounding like a cracked record, the system is continuing to throw up impressive young players. Whetu Douglas has already made his mark for the Crusaders while Reed Prinseep has stepped up for the Hurricanes with Blade Thomson out injured.
There's a whole bunch of them and it is exciting to see. There's some good props around and Daniel Lienert-Brown has started well for the Highlanders. It was great to see veteran Wyatt Crockett come off the bench and make a key break through the midfield looking like a spring chicken as well.
However, it was disappointing to learn that Chiefs winger James Lowe is off to Ireland. He has been in the form of his life, playing some fantastic rugby, and had to have been on the radar for the All Blacks. I've been really impressed with him over the last couple of years, and had written so in this column.
It's a shame that he's made this call so early in the season. I genuinely thought from the last two games that he was a contender. I guess it just highlights the players who are being lost to the New Zealand game. It's shame but at the end of the day there are a lot of players who slip through the cracks.
But I saw Lowe as an All Black in waiting; I am a little bit gutted. I had picked him in past years but he had always been injured and that kept him off pushing for higher honours. Then again, maybe he is playing so well because he had made his mind up and he's got clarity about what is happening.
It is a continuation of the frustrations of not being able to get that All Blacks jersey and you end up having to make a decision, as Steven Luatua, Aaron Cruden and Charlie Faumuina have all done so.
After the weekend there has to be genuine concern for Australian rugby. It was hit home when the Blues went down to Hamilton to take on the Chiefs, this after they had pummelled the Rebels in the first round. It was a reality check for the Blues and highlighted the differences in playing the New Zealand sides and playing the Australians.
SANZAAR has got to look at this seriously and ask if what is happening at the moment is good for the competition. It is not just the Australians, it is the mismatches that are occurring. There is a disparity between the best players in this competition and the worst.
Are people really tuning in to watch the Hurricanes put a record score on the Rebels this a week after another record romp against the Sunwolves? I watched the game against the Rebels but tuned out and didn't wait for the final whistle because it was game over.
You want to see competition, you want to see good rugby; what you don't want to see are one-sided affairs because that does nothing for the game. We need Australia rugby to be strong and they have to question whether they need five franchises.
I know what the businessmen behind that will say but at the end of the day it is the fans' game and they need to do something about it and get their players up to speed.
As for the Crusaders-Highlanders game, well that was just an absolutely fabulous game to watch -- it had everything. I was absolutely riveted by what was a great spectacle, and it was only the second round of the season.
There I was listening to the commentators talking about all sorts of records that were about to be broken, only to see an incredible comeback from the Crusaders with length-of-the-field rugby; the seven-time champions really dug deep.
The Malakai Fekitoa yellow card was a case of 'you've got to be kidding me'. Everyone that saw it and watched it knows that it was a really hard call and I know that many of the law changes are a result of everyone worried about the health and the safety of the players; but at the same time, Fekitoa couldn't pull out. He had nowhere to go.
A bit of common sense is still important here. Was that an accident or deliberate? Anyone who can argue that was deliberate, well...I would love to hear it. Whatever the case, we've just got to have consistency applied across all similar decisions.
In the wash-up to the weekend, I heard Chiefs coach Dave Rennie discuss it and he said that it was fine for a challenge like Fekitoa's to be interpreted that way, but then he stressed the need for consistency right across the board. I thought that was on the money and a really good comment because there were incidents throughout that same game, and there had been all over the weekend where players got away with worse -- a hell of a lot worse.
That was a defining moment for the Highlanders as they were down to 14 men for the final seven minutes and Fekitoa would have been involved in the defence of the final movement which produced the match-winning try.
Hopefully the outcome of it all is that we get some refereeing consistency.
And speaking of referees doing things well I loved Nigel Owens' yellow card for the ballboy. He's a great character and that's great for rugby. It was good to see the sense of humour and it was a great representation of what he brings to rugby.