I am in no doubt that we have just endured the worst weekend of rugby in Super 12's six-year history.
A subjective view, perhaps, incapable of being backed up with supporting scientific evidence, but one made with absolute conviction.
The IRB's directive to referees has created a crisis of confidence amongst players, coaches, spectators, media commentators and, I suspect, referees, which it will take some very deft footwork to restore. But who is going to provide the leadership?
Friday evening's meeting between the Blues and Crusaders (clash would be an entirely inappropriate noun to use, far too suggestive of excitement and drama) set the standard which was hardly bettered in any of the other five matches played in different parts of the southern hemisphere.
The pursuit of absolute consistency in the way referees interpret the laws of the game is futile, unobtainable, it always has been, the spirit of the law at least as important as the letter. The world class referees are the ones who understand this and develop their style around it.
But the game is in crisis because the standard of consistency being sought is so severe that its achievement would see a penalty awarded at every contest for the ball where a tackle has just occurred, clearly an absurdity. And the game is in crisis because some referees are rigorously pursuing complete obeyance with the laws at the breakdown, while others are ignoring it more or less completely so that the levels of inconsistency are grotesque and completely unacceptable to all concerned.
At Eden Park, Paul Honiss reminded me of a very nervous theatre director in the early stages of rehearsals, the actors/players so unsure of their parts that every time they came through a tackle ball pile up without having infringed they audibly received the enthusiastic plaudits of the guy with the script in his hands. "Good work !" he thundered , which I found embarrassing and demeaning to professional sportsmen.
In the weekend's second match, in Wellington, Australian referee Peter Marshall went a full 35 minutes before pinging either the Hurricanes or the Bulls for the sort of infringement that had been going on all through the opening half hour. I think he set out to interpret the laws liberally so that we could have some sort of game, then either lost his nerve, or began to feel guilty, or started to think about his future as an international referee.
The crux of the problem is that extremely fired up international class forwards are expected to arrive at the breakdown at 100 kilometres an hour and then stop dead in their tracks , bend down and calmly pluck the ball from an opponent on the floor.
But life isn't like that. If you arrive at that speed there is a fair chance that you will fall over, or more likely still get knocked flat by a teammate arriving a split second later. This may have the effect of clearing the ball quickly and efficiently, but at the moment it is more likely to earn a penalty against your side.
So the intention behind the directive, to commit more forwards to the breakdown to avoid the midfield clutter choking the game, is achieving precisely the opposite. Why commit to the breakdown at all, especially in your own half, when it is odds-on that the ref will penalize you?
Watch this space , because this one is going to run and run.
Meanwhile, back at the action there were some intriguing results which require some consideration.The Brumbies, thought by many to be invincible after the first round, turned out to be vincible, if there is such a word. The Crusaders, defending a proud record of three successive titles, revealed themselves to be totally clueless, but let's be careful before rushing into hasty judgments about their future. They have been down a similar road before. In 1999, their second title year, they lost their first four before collectively extracting their digits.
The Chiefs justified the verdict of my preview that they would get up to cause an upset and in the process showed that they have distanced themselves from previous teams bearing the same name. The same can be said about the Waratahs, whose play under Bob Dwyer has been refreshing . But they are yet to be seriously tested and the margin of their defeat of the Stormers may have flattered them.
The Stormers, with 12 Springboks in their ranks, were a joke. If you are going to make a spectacle of yourself and wear white boots, as Percy Montgmery did, you have got to make sure you play fault-less rugby, not give the impression you are participating in a mass audition for a re-make of a Keystone Cops movie.
In Wellington, the Bulls showed that they have made some progress, their huge pack (an average weight of 18 stones per man ) inflicting real damage on the flightier Hurricanes eight. If the United Kingdom is being laid low by an outbreak of foot and mouth, the New Zealand Super 12 sides are being afflicted by a virus which seems to have robbed them of the ability to perform any of the basic rugby skills - passing, catching, thinking and so on.
This is no joke and must be of concern to Wayne Smith. The Highlanders were simply blown away, not just by the referees' whistle but by the energy of the Cats' play. Their match against the Brumbies this coming weekend promises to be a cracker. This was the Highlanders at their worst, a side of talented individuals where resolve and leadership goes missing at times. Deon Muir and the Chiefs aside, there was a worrying lack of leadership on display in any of the kiwi sides.
So the laws and their interpretation are not to blame for everything, players and coaches too are responsible for preparing themselves properly. But let's hope the conference in the northern hemisphere, called this week to iron out some of the law confusion, does precisely that and doesn't add a new layer of chaos.
Anybody holding their breath out there ?