When the highlights of a Super Rugby round is observing a halfback delivering a scrum-feed one-handed and wondering if a coach was caught nibbling on a party pie during a game, then you know you've endured hours of horror.
Watching the Australian Super Rugby contingent making fools of themselves has in recent seasons been common fodder. But there was an excuse. Five Australian teams were too many, and so each line-up was weakened by low-grade hangers-on.
Cutting the Australian contingent to four was supposed to get rid of the flotsam and jetsam- and for a while this season this seemed to be a case. Standards appeared to be improving, and the wide gap between Australia and New Zealand may have been narrowing- by a few centimetres at least. However reality returned last weekend when the Australian sides encountered worthy oppositions- and all collapsed to indicate this country remains way behind the pace in application, skill level and rugby intelligence.
There was some really dumb football played by supposedly notable Australian representative players last weekend, which is alarming considering their international season starts in just over a month against the most formidable of Six Nations foes- Ireland. In the torture involved in watching one Australian team try to out-do each other in the race to win the No.1 Gibbering Idiot Award, we had to rely on the lighter moments to get us through.
Thank goodness, the Reds tried the 22-year-old Thursday Islander scrum-half Moses Sorovi midway through the second half of the Chiefs game. At last there was someone showing initiative, and unexpected flair, including feeding his first scrum with a flourishing right hand move. You had to hit the replay button to make certain you were not seeing things, but yes Sorovi immediately showed the big stage didn't bother him. For the rest of the game, Sorovi succeeded in giving the Reds an edge.
You also had to hit the replay button when with the Reds down 24-nil at half-time, you expected to see some table thumping from their coach Brad Thorn when the TV coverage focused on the home coach's box. But no, Thorn was calmly taking a bite into what appeared to be either a party pie, sausage roll or maybe a vegetarian samosa, before quickly putting it down when seeing his big mug on the ground screen.
Nearby his assistant coach Tony McGahan opted for the healthy approach- biting into a red apple. There was no panic up there. They know their Reds transformation through the injection of young blood will take time, and involve pain. So might as well be nourished for the long journey.
The Reds were overwhelmed by the Chiefs, but it wasn't the worst Australian performance of the round. The Rebels were always going to struggle without Will Genia in Pretoria, while the Brumbies have been plain boring and oh so predictable for a long time. While it is must be painful for them to witness their back-rower Scott Fardy enjoying so much success in European Rugby, the Brumbies will continue to suffer every time they encounter a reasonable foe.
But the Waratahs' inability to score a point against the Lions at home was inexplicable. The Lions are a fair team, but were seriously jetlagged as they had only arrived in Sydney the previous day. Lions No.10 Elton Jantjies clearly didn't know what time zone he was in, making a succession of mistakes.
But he got away with it against an infuriatingly lethargic Waratahs, who were not interested in taking advantage of anything, suffering the indignity of not scoring a point in a match for the first time since 1989.
In 1989, NSW had excuses for finishing scoreless. On a miserable June afternoon, NSW were beaten 31-0 in the Concord Oval mud by Queensland, with Michael Lynagh dominating his opposite No.10 Lloyd Walker, who struggled behind a losing pack. Walker was NSW captain because they were without David Campese, Ian Williams, Nick Farr-Jones, Steve Cutler and Tim Gavin.
This was also when NSW had few resources and virtually no backup staff. Money was short, which saw then coach Dick Laffan resort to conducting training sessions under the Concord Oval grandstand, using car headlights so everyone could see.
Nowadays the Waratahs has a cast of thousands- including an army of coaching assistants who when talking to the media mutter silly coach speak with abbreviations and vogue phrases. No wonder the players are confused. Their heads are filled with babble.
Back in 1989, with the Australia-British Lions series three weeks away, Queensland used the moment to denigrate NSW. Queensland second rower Bill Campbell announced to us in the visitor's dressing room: "Every player in the Queensland team is worthy of Test selection. I can't see what NSW player I would swap to put into the Queensland side."
In the first Test team, there were eight Queenslanders and seven New South Welshmen. They were 30-12 victors. Then the Lions went the knuckle and succeeded in the next two Tests to win a volatile series. A series loss to Ireland in June is inevitable if the Australian teams are unable to overcome this slump. It doesn't look encouraging, with the Waratahs, after the bye, having to encounter four New Zealand teams in a row, while the Reds confront competition leaders- the Lions- this weekend, as the Brumbies meet the second-placed Crusaders and the injury depleted Rebels play the Stormers in Cape Town.
More grim viewing looms.
But not all are stressed out about it. Wallabies skills coach Mick Byrne is going for the Alfred E. Neuman 'what me worry' approach. Byrne said this week: 'There are some good signs out there. We've come off the weekend of four losses but I'm looking at the group saying we're in a better base position than we were last year. I don't think there's any building or rebuilding to be done."
How many agree with Byrne is open to conjecture. It wouldn't be a long line.