It's a worrying thought but one that can't be dismissed - the rugby on view last night at Eden Park, may have been a pointer about what to expect at the World Cup.
Worrying because if this is the blueprint that awaits, rugby is stuffed as an entertainment sport. Worryingbecause there were only 8000 people at the stadium as it was and it would be frightening to guess how few will be tempted to come back.
The Bulls brought just the one idea with them - to win the ball on the touchline through the remarkable Victor Matfield and then hide it up their jumpers.
To be fair it worked pretty well for them and realising they were on to a good thing, they didn't relent. It was kind of hard to fault them for the logic: if the referee didn't mind players joining the rolling maul from in front of the ball, why should they stop doing it?
They had a penalty safely in the bank each time they formed a maul and from that, they could kick to touch further down the field and start the whole thing again.
Effective, yes. Illegal, mostly. Boring, entirely. No wonder international coaches are worried the World Cup is going to be hi-jacked by a tactic that while legitimate contravenes every premise on which the game is set up.
The Bulls were able to be a little more expansive in the second half to refute the one-dimensional claims, but the space opened up for them as a result of the Blues having been bludgeoned by questionable weaponry for 50 minutes.
That's not to exonerate the Blues. As usual they did their level best to add to their plight by committing a ludicrously high number of casual errors. But as poor as they were at looking after the ball, there's no question they faced a near impossible task defending an opponent that legally obstructed the ball for most of the contest.
