KEY POINTS:
Those who like a decent denouement to their sports competitions will be relishing the next four days.
The first act in a weekend-long Air New Zealand Cup playoff puzzle will be played out at Waikato Stadium tonight.
Waikato, armed with four returning All Blacks, host Taranaki, with victory
ensuring a quarter-final place, but leaving the loser an anxious couple of days.
And yet so tight is the mid-lower part of the table that the loser could still finish eighth - and therefore extend their season at least another week - if Tasman, Northland and Otago all lose in the next three days, which is possible.
Just four points cover the teams from sixth to 10th.
Taranaki sit seventh on 21 points, Waikato eighth and a point back going into tonight, but any of those other three teams could finish the weekend inside the top eight depending on the mix of results.
The picture may not finally clear itself until Northland face Auckland at Eden Park on Sunday in the last game of the final round.
So it's timely for Waikato that centre Richard Kahui, first five-eighths Stephen Donald, wing Sitiveni Sivivatu and loose forward Sione Lauaki will step out this evening.
In the case of Kahui and Sivivatu, their last appearance for Waikato was in the 2006 final, in which Waikato cleaned out Wellington in Hamilton. Kahui had shoulder surgery last year and Sivivatu was ruled out by the World Cup. Donald has had one game and Lauaki three.
But Kahui scotched talk that the quartet's presence will carry Waikato home.
"It's not our job to come back here and play Harlem Globetrotter-type football. We will just come back in and do what we need to do and help those young boys grow another leg, if we can," he said.
It's been a curious season for Waikato, beginning poorly, then belting Auckland to get moving.
Similarly, Taranaki struggled to get across the tryline early on but exploded in the second half against Otago at Carisbrook a couple of weeks ago with five tries.
They may live to rue squandering what should have been at least four points against battling Counties Manukau last weekend, requiring a late converted try just to get a draw.
Taranaki are bolstered by the return of All Black hooker Andrew Hore and there will be plenty of attention on second five-eighths Jayden Hayward who appeals as a far better than average player with an eye for a gap.
* All Black loose forward Adam Thomson has re-signed for Otago for two more years. The woolly-haired loose forward's signature follows those of pacy winger Fetu'u Vainikolo and lock Tom Donnelly, who have also signed until 2010.