After a clean sweep the week before, it was back to the grindstone fro the New Zealand teams this week when 4 out of 5 teams lost.

The Chiefs choked after a great start against the Reds. The Hurricanes couldn’t get it together against the Chetahs. The Highlanders lost to the Stormers and the Blues were beaten by old foes Canterbury.

The troubling question for the New Zealand franchises is ‘Can a New Zealand team beat the Bulls at Loftus?’ because that is what it is going to take for a team from here to win the Super 14.

Last year, Canterbury started well in their semi-final and were in the match up until Thomas Waldrom’s sin-binning.

The Chiefs started brilliantly in the final, scoring 2 tries in the first 10 minutes but it was all down hill from there – and it hasn’t changed.

The Bulls are the supreme force in the Super 14 and it is up to the rest to work out a way to beat them, like Canterbury before them, the Brumbies and Blues before that.

The standard in Southern Hemisphere is being set by South Africa and it is up to the rest to catch up.

Can it be done prior to the world cup? Hopefully there is time because we aren’t seeing it yet.