There have been promising signs from Otago in their first showings in the Mitre 10 Cup competition, says ODT Online rugby writer Jeff Cheshire.
It's a long time since Otago were as dominant against Wellington as they were on Thursday night.
The 44-21 win, on the back of a near-perfect first half, followed on from an outstanding second half against Southland and took the side to two wins from two games. There are promising signs and the question must be asked whether this could be the team that gets the province back into the top flight of provincial rugby.
Of course it is early days yet. But this does look to be the strongest Otago has been for a number of years. They remain a young side, but possess the same core of players that has seen them through the last few seasons. That group has been slowly getting better, playing some outstanding rugby towards the end of last year and carrying that through.
There is talent across the park. The new laws make having dynamic, mobile tight forwards important and Otago have plenty of them. They have depth here too, having started completely different tight fives in each game so far, but both putting in good shifts.
In the loose forwards they have a group of similarly dynamic players who simply get into everything. James Lentjes has been a standout, while Paul Grant's return at No 8 has added extra punch that had been missing.
Out wide the likes of Fa'asiu Fuatai and Matt Faddes bring genuine flair, while they have a bunch of heady players around them and an ever-improving pivot in Fletcher Smith.
Halfback was the biggest question mark heading into the season and while it is too early to jump to conclusions, Josh Walden has put on a good showing in his time there. His delivery was good, while he took good options and used his boot well.
When you can threaten from 1-15 like that, you can attack in different ways and become very hard to defend. They are a team prepared to spread the ball wide, as most teams are with the new laws, however they have also shown they can apply pressure with the boot and through the lineout drive. They do this off a rock solid set-piece, giving them a reliable source of clean possession to work with.
Defensively they have been rock solid, pushing up and smothering their opponents to knock them over behind the gain line. It is this that saw Wellington hold the ball for multiple phases but go nowhere in the first half. Defending that way was one of the things that made the Highlanders so successful this year. Eventually teams will run out of ideas and make a mistake trying to do something elaborate.
Remaining consistent will be the big challenge. In the the second half against Wellington there were some missed tackles and tries leaked, while in the first half against Southland, errors limited Otago on attack. In this year's competition, the team that cuts those two things out of their game will probably be the one that wins, more often than not.
There is no reason this team can't do that, particularly against the Championship teams.
But there is a long way to go and a lot can happen in a short space of time. For now though, you would have to say Otago are a very real chance of going all the way this year.