There have been some monumental achievements in New Zealand rugby.
Colin Meads playing with a broken arm. George Nepia playing all the games on the Invincibles tour. Caleb Ralph becoming an All Black.
But the biggest task may be about to be presented.
Is there anyone in this country who will watch every minute of every game in the ITM Cup? All 72 games, condensed into 52 days, starting tonight, when Otago hosts North Harbour at Carisbrook.
It is a unique year for the provincial competition, as World Cup rules stipulate no competitions can run alongside the tournament, although a dispensation has been given to the Heartland competition.
So it will be helter-skelter viewing for the next seven-odd weeks. Live rugby will be on the screen six nights a week, with three games on most Saturdays and two on Sundays.
Games will kick off as late as 8.05pm on a Wednesday.
One must wonder how many people are going to turn up in a very congested rugby calendar, but the games will go ahead.
Not only is the competition going to be over very quickly but it comes with a new format.
After consultation, changes, backtracks and then more changes, the 14 teams have been split into a premiership (top seven) and a championship (bottom seven).
Otago is in the championship, after finishing last in 2010. It will play games against the six other teams in the championship and four teams in the premiership.
The cross-over format means Otago will not play Bay of Plenty, Taranaki and Wellington.
The fact that not everyone plays everyone also makes it a difficult competition to adjust to, after a pure round robin in the past two seasons.
With the congested season, there will be no semifinals - just straight finals on September 2-3.
The team which finishes bottom of the premiership will be automatically relegated and replaced by the championship-winning side.
By the time the finals roll around most people will be thinking about the World Cup, as all the teams will have arrived.
And will anyone be left standing after more than 5700 minutes of rugby within seven and a-half weeks?
