KEY POINTS:
The blood was boiling. The air was thick with invective.
And we were in a cosy living room, many kilometres from North Harbour Stadium.
Great stuff, although the title bid of the usually freewheeling, off-loading Blues is in unexpected trouble, and you certainly wouldn't back them against quality
opponents in the rain from here on after they fell to the Sharks.
Albany's stadium may only be half-built, the conditions were hardly perfect, the referee and his mates even less so, and there are jokers in the Blues backline with too many deficiencies in their game.
Most significantly, the Blues - with a healthy pack - fielded a backline unable to kick a football properly. They got their desserts.
As for swingin' Sam Tuitupou - dopey, dopey, dopey, old son, although he wasn't the only overly-feisty one during the weekend's games.
We have some television commentators who are obsessed with collapsed scrums to the point that they talk about them even when they aren't collapsing.
Yes, there are a few too many collapsed scrums. But continually talking about collapsed scrums as being the blight on the game is also a self-fulfilling prophecy.
The important bottom line at Albany was that the Sharks' spoiling victory came in a game with a test match-like edge to it.
This was a match and result the pedestrian Super 14 needed, giving the competition a mighty shake. Beyond the smiles of the Sharks and their supporters, it might have warmed Springbok hearts too.
A South African team might now host a Super 14 semifinal which will add bite that was missing while the Crusaders and Blues held sway on New Zealand's behalf.
A rough Sunday morning poll of people who watched the Albany game produced a wide range of responses. Beauty is in the eye of the beholder, and it needs to be mentioned here that the company I kept on Saturday night was unimpressed with what was rolling across his widescreen. Lax officiating of the offside line was deemed the main offence, with the visitors the major beneficiaries.
I couldn't agree with this match assessment.
It had tension, controversial moments, a local derby feel thanks to the solid South African migration towards the North Shore, a stupendous drop goal from Francois Steyn that should linger long in the memory, at least one extremely interesting pointer in terms of All Black selections, and even acted as a portent of obstacles the men in black may face at the World Cup. The Sharks were superb in terms of tactics suited to the conditions, and commitment.
Put it this way: The game steamrolled all over what occurred a few hours earlier in Hamilton, where the Chiefs and Force scored 100 points, very few well earned.
The Force are superbly drilled but they lack widespread rugby nous and athleticism. The Chiefs can entertain but they have a defence for which there is no defence. Pitter-patter rugby like this suffers through the inflationary effect, providing the sort of thrill you would get if someone thrust a few million Zimbabwean dollars into your hand.
Back to Albany.
Australian Stuart Dickinson may have few instincts for the game, and a poor eye for detail. He needs all the help he can get from his touch judges, and this was sadly lacking. But to lay the blame for the Blues' defeat at the officials' door would be remiss.
Apart from their kicking woes, there were signs that a rabble mentality is popping its head up in the Blues again.
The chief culprit was Tuitupou who, under provocation, let fly with a flurry of punches when his side could not afford to give up a penalty, let alone play a man short for the next 10 minutes.
For all Tuitupou's wonderful value as a hit up and knock 'em down merchant, it is hard to remember a second five-eighths with poorer kicking ability or less awareness of those who have the misfortune to be stationed outside him.
To tamper with Rob Muldoon's greatest line, when it comes to clever attacking rugby, Tuitupou will raise the level in both countries when he leaves for England.
The most significant performance of the night, however, belonged to Isaia Toeava, who confirmed that he is not yet tempered sufficiently for the white-hot atmosphere of major World Cup games.
It was a night of drama and importance, and for entertainment, not a disappointment at all. It was also a night to salute the Sharks for a job extremely well done.
