Are Taranaki the new Auckland?

Rewind 12 months and it was Auckland scrapping to stay in the premiership section of the Mitre 10 Cup.

How times have changed. Now, it’s Taranaki, one of the form teams the past half-decade, laying an egg.

Let’s dig into this week’s talking points:

Can Taranaki stave off relegation?

Who would have thought Taranaki would be festering in the bowel of the premiership with four rounds remaining?

Last year’s semifinalists have had their fair share of injuries, but still have enough experience and talent to make their eye-opening slide a surprise.

Having dropped three games on the bounce, they’ve got just 10 points – three less than sixth placed Counties – to show for six weeks work.

They were nothing short of dreadful in their 53-17 thrashing to Tasman last week, and the bad news is their remaining schedule doesn’t get any easier.

Next up is Auckland (home) on Saturday, before they finish with North Harbour (home), Canterbury (away) and Wellington (away).

What about the race for promotion?

There’s no clearcut favourite as there was this time last year, when Wellington was trampling everyone in their path.

Southland and Manawatu¯ might as well plan for another year in the championship now, leaving the other five sides to scrap it out for the semifinal spots. From there, any of the qualifiers could string a couple of sudden-death wins together and join the top-tier.

That said, Waikato have impressed in recent weeks – just ask the Magpies – and will take some beating if they can keep their foot down.

Otago, the pre-season favourites to win the championship, are also heating up.

Are there any All Blacks playing this week?

Loose forward Jackson Hemopo will have a run for Manawatu¯ tonight.

The All Blacks jet to Argentina on Friday, meaning there will be no repeat of round three, when management released a small herd of them to play during the break in the Rugby Championship.

Hemopo, named on the Turbos’ bench, will front against Tasman in a bid to prove his fitness ahead of the Argentina-south Africa legs of the Sanzaar competition. The 24-year-old hasn’t played since the ‘‘game of three halves’’ last month, and has been battling a knee injury sustained during the Highlanders’ quarterfinal loss to the Waratahs.

How about those Aucklanders?

There’s no question about it, this team has turned a corner.

Their impressive 34-29 win against Canterbury was more convincing than the final score indicates, and backed up their savaging of Tasman the previous week.

After the win, coach Alama Ieremia spoke about his team fighting for the jersey.

That’s certainly something that’s been missing from the perennial underachievers in recent years.

Sure, Auckland leaked a couple of late tries against Canterbury, but the way this year’s mob defend their line and physically bring it to their opponents is telling of their transformation.

Ieremia deserves credit, but it shouldn’t be under-estimated how much influence assistant coach Sir Graham Henry has had on them.

Are there any must-watch games on the schedule?

No fixture stands out like a mangled thumb this week, to be fair.

However, you may want to put the Saturday afternoon chores on hold to tune into the Otagocanterbury match in Dunedin.

Like most matches this time of the year, there are playoff implications for both sides, and the scoreboard attendant is likely to be in for a busy old day.

The Taranaki-auckland and Bay of Plentywaikato games should also draw plenty of interest.