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Cell C Sharks captain Bismarck du Plessis was right when he said after his team's defeat at Loftus this past weekend that it was not train-smash, but it was nonetheless a timely reality check for those who were buying into the hype that cast the Durbanites as an invincible and irresistible force.
The Chiefs, joint favourites and bidding for their third successive Vodacom Super Rugby title, were also beaten this past weekend, with the Western Force pulling off the upset of the round. So we should also be careful not to go the other way and give the Sharks' first loss a significant it needn't necessarily have. There was also the mitigation for the Sharks of having the two chosen halfbacks get cut down by injury at relatively early stages of the game.
Jake White's success as a coach has been built around strong halfbacks who can control the contest, and when Patrick Lambie in particular tore his bicep after five minutes, the bridge the Sharks had to cross immediately became a much longer one than had appeared the case when they flew to Gauteng at the start of the weekend.
Apart from losing Lambie's experience and generalship, it meant that Tim Swiel effectively found himself making the step from Vodacom Cup reserve to Super Rugby player in one go. The Bulls aren't the team they used to be, but they are still difficult to beat at home, so it became a testing challenge.
Yet, for all that, if the Sharks are the championship material that they have been touted to be, they should still have been expected to prevail, and that is why it was a sobering reality check. Defeat in the opening away match brought home in no uncertain terms the reality that they can be made to be vulnerable once injuries start to take effect, and what the Sharks have experienced so far isn't close yet to what the previous coaches had to put up with last season.
It was the way the Sharks were shaded by the passionate Vodacom Bulls in the physical battle that should be a source for concern. And with Lambie probably set to be out for up to six weeks, White could be without his dream combination in the No 10/No 12 axis for some key games.
With Loftus also showing up just what a massive blow the loss of Pieter-Steph du Toit for the rest of the season was to the team, there should have been plenty of reason for White to leave Pretoria with a worried frown creasing his brow.
White praised his charges afterwards for the way they fought, and the emotion etched on Frans Steyn's face in the post-match interviews certainly summed up what the game meant to them. However, the current Bulls team is not good enough to justify the "At least we went to Loftus and were competitive" mentality. Maybe a couple of years ago it was, but not now.
The result means that there has still been only one home defeat suffered by a South African team thus far in the competition, that being the Toyota Cheetahs' loss to the Lions in Bloemfontein in the first round. That brings some perspective on where everything stands in the conference and should be a consolation to the DHL Stormers, who have lost four games this season and are seen by some of their fans to be in a crisis, but who have only played once and won once at home.
Certainly it isn't difficult to imagine that the Sharks team that was beaten by the Bulls this past weekend would have suffered a similar fate against the Brumbies in Canberra that the Stormers did.
The Loftus game, for all its billing and pre-match hype, didn't provide much quality rugby. If it weren't for the fact that most of the New Zealand teams have been decidedly inconsistent up to now, it should be alarming from a South African viewpoint that the Sharks have appeared to sink back to the Bulls' level since their opening win over those opponents in round one.
That said, the Bulls have made some significant gains over the last six weeks, and Victor Matfield being back in the starting team is definitely one of them. There was a lot of negativity towards Matfield's comeback when it was announced, but in the past few matches the veteran hasn't played like a player coming back from retirement. Maybe he never intended to retire, and just took the sabbatical that South African rugby doesn't allow its players.
Talking of former heroes returning, it was also good to see Dewaldt Potgieter back too. Somehow the Bulls seem more like the Bulls we know when he is present, and the experience of seeing both him and Matfield in the same team was a bit like the feeling you get when you arrive back at a South African airport after a long trip overseas and spot the biltong shop.
How far the Bulls will go in the competition is another story though, for they have a few key areas of weakness, most notably the creaky scrum that allowed the Sharks back into the contest late in the game.
The Lions were gifted their come from behind win over the Reds by the Stuart Berry freak-show, but even though it was highly unlikely they would have won had it not been for Berry, they still showed the commitment and determination that distinguishes this Lions side from many previous ones. It has been a long time since they won three matches on the trot at Ellis Park.
The Cheetahs are another story though, and so are the Stormers, though the Loftus match should have reminded everyone of something that Ian McIntosh used to always make a point of saying when he was coaching back in the Super 12 days – "No-one really knows how everything stands in this competition until everyone has toured".
With all but one of the South African sides remaining unbeaten at home after six weeks of competition, that old truism has never been truer than it is now. It makes it interesting.
On the subject of home ground advantage, it was a noticeable feature of this past weekend that all seven games were won by the home side.
Weekend results
Highlanders 35 Hurricanes 31
Waratahs 32 Melbourne Rebels 8
Blues 40 Toyota Cheetahs 30
Brumbies 25 DHL Stormers 15
Western Force 18 Chiefs 15
Lions 23 Reds 20
Vodacom Bulls 23 Cell C Sharks 19
Loftus result brings some perspective.
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