Stuart Barnes talks the hugely improved Springboks, the return of Juan Figallo, high-flying Glasgow and a look to the Champions Cup...
1. The second Australia versus All Blacks game was good but the Springbok-New Zealand match in Cape Town eclipsed even that thriller as the game of the 2017 Rugby Championship.
The South Africans were written off. New Zealand had scored 114 points against them in their last two matches. There was no disgrace dismissing them this time around.
But instead of a procession of Kiwi tries, we were treated to an almost old-fashioned Test match. Not in the pace of the game. That was thoroughly modern. Rather the sheer intensity of the occasion.
South Africa looked and played like a South African team of yesteryear. The result was something approximate to a great Test match.
2. If we are going to bandy about words like "intensity" better mention a man who has been one of my favourite players for many years.
Eben Etzebeth burst onto the test scene and appeared set for greatness but New Zealand changed the rulebook for locks with Brodie Retallick metamorphosing into a second row with the distribution skills of a stretched centre.
Etzebeth was beginning to look like last year's model but captaincy has reinvigorated him. He could not have done any more for the cause on Saturday afternoon. His was a monumental performance.
A beacon for the rest of the team, he was my man of the match although Malcolm Marx was decent enough. 'Karl' gave a first-class impersonation of Bismarck at his best. That turnover technique was something to behold.
3. On a more depressing note, it's so sad to see the career of the mazy Nehe Milner-Skudder once more put on hold with a reported dislocated shoulder.
Not long back from another serious injury, it is terrible news for him and rotten for the rest of us. While he was on the pitch he was in weaving, wondrous form. The behind-the-back pass to Aaron Smith rivalled Beauden Barrett's flip pass in Albany as the moment of the tournament.
One of the most dexterous and balanced players on the planet, let's hope he is back for good next time he returns to the field.
4. After the bruising brilliance of the Cape Town collision, it was difficult to evaluate the quality of the Argentina test against Australia.
Most matches would have suffered from 'after the Lord Mayor's show syndrome'- If anyone can tell me what a Lord Mayor's Show is like, I'd love to know. I assume it must be pretty decent. Bob Dylan playing, Brunello flowing from the taps, tips coming in at 10-1 every ten minutes...that sort of thing- Sorry, I digress.
Anyway, to the final game of the 2017 Rugby Championship. Hard to judge but what isn't in doubt is the endurance of Australia. Bloemfontein last week, Mendoza this week; they took on and beat the Pumas and travel fever, finishing the match in style. I reckon Michael Cheika will be more than satisfied with the overall performance of his team through the competition.
5. He'll be disappointed to lose Mario Ledesma though. The Australian forwards coach has done an excellent job, especially in the scrum.
Cheika has a hole to fill. Ledesma is heading to the Jaguares and it is hard to see his influence not having a profound effect on the once mighty, now slightly lightweight Puma scrum.
6. On the subject of scrums, what a performance from the unavailable (for Tests) Argentine prop, Juan Figallo.
A few years ago I rated him the world's best tight head. Then the injuries came. Saracens took a risk, took their time and have reassembled an outstanding rugby player. Mark McCall's long term view is paying off in style.
His carrying and breakdown work is better than it has ever been while between him and Vincent Koch, their other 'impact' tighthead, the European champions have as good an eighty minutes of tightheads as any side in the world, Test teams included. They are in a good place ahead of Europe.
7. The same cannot be said for the team they beat in last season's final. The team they face at the pool stage this campaign, the champions of France, Clermont Auvergne.
Ninth in the Top 14 and well beaten in Toulouse, despite fielding a strong side, it has been a sluggish start for them. I'll not be dismissing them quite yet. Especially as their first opponents, the Ospreys, are in an even bigger pickle with five straight losses. The latest was at least a better effort, going down narrowly to the Scarlets at home.
8. Glasgow fly the flag for the Guinness PRO14 - and more pertinently - for Glasgow, away to the English champions, Exeter.
The only team with a 100 percent record in Europe's top-flight leagues, if Dave Rennie works his magic and comes away from Devon with more than a bonus point or two, they'll be added to the list of outsiders along with Leinster and the Scarlets (my three fancies being Saracens, Toulon and Clermont).
9. It is a heck of a pool though with Leinster and Montpellier the other two participants. Losing at home is not an option. I reckon the team that nicks one away win will top the pool.
Montpellier are a horrendous proposition on their own patch but a watered down team away from the South. The three times winners Leinster must not only beat them in Dublin on Saturday lunchtime - a cracking game, live on Sky Sports - but stop them leaving Ireland with any little bonuses.
After the recent Munster match, Johnny Sexton suggested his team needed to go up a gear or two. If Montpellier turn up, they'll need to find overdrive. Chances are Montpellier's sat-nav will let them down again.
10. What price some dangerous complacency from Bath? In a pool where Toulon and the Scarlets lie dangerously in wait, there may be a temptation to expect a five-point haul at home to Benetton.
The Italian side hardly have the greatest record on the road in this tournament...but that would be to dismiss what might just be the long-awaited renaissance in Italian club rugby (strictly speaking it should be the 'birth' of Italian rugby but it is Italy and I couldn't resist the word 'renaissance').
Benetton walloped the Southern Kings, while Zebre came within a point of joining them as winners in Edinburgh. Encouraging times for Italy. With three wins in their last four games, Benetton should not be written off.
I'll be shocked if Bath don't beat them at the Recreation Ground but the bonus point win had better not be taken for granted. Every single point counts for something in these pool games....can't wait.