NZ sides will test Oz revival

Their [Rebels] rise appears to be Lazarus-like, which it is, but there is a simple explanation.

have been merged to create a stronger single entity and it's no surprise the Australian Rugby Union, for now, have been convinced that four Super Rugby teams is the optimal number for them.

While the Rebels have been the primary beneficiary of the Force's demise, the other three Australian clubs have welcomed the less competitive player market now that a thin base doesn't have to be stretched so far.

The Reds, a total basket case in 2017, have won three times in 2018, providing further evidence that the gloom is lifting.

But the Australian teams haven't yet played any New Zealand sides, all of whom spent 2016 and 2017 ripping them apart.

Famously, Australian sides didn't win a single game against any from New Zealand last year, after managing to do it only three times in 2016.

In two years of Super Rugby, Australia had a 6 per cent win ratio against New Zealand teams and whatever level of optimism has surfaced in the last few weeks, it should be held in check until late Friday night when the Rebels face the Hurricanes.

This will be the first transtasman encounter of the year and the first opportunity to put the standings into a better context.

There's no point in the Australians heralding a new dawn until they have measured their status against the benchmark-setting New Zealanders.

The Rebels are flying high, but their four wins have come against the Sunwolves, Reds, Brumbies and Sharks and three of those were at home.

The Hurricanes are a vastly different proposition to anything the Rebels have yet encountered and while this competition needs the Australian renaissance to be real, it may, in the next six weeks, be exposed as an illusion.

The Rebels have improved, but probably nowhere near enough to beat the best New Zealand teams.

That gap still looks sizeable and it will be a fall-off-yourseat moment if the Rebels win this weekend or beat any Kiwi team other than the Blues. It's the same with the Reds: they are better, but that's from a low benchmark and they can't yet be seen as a serious threat.

Based on what has been on view so far, the New Zealand sides — Blues excluded — are playing with an unrivalled pace, intensity and skill level.

They still look like they will be too good for the Australians, to the extent that while it's unimaginable New Zealand could post a second consecutive clean sweep of Australian teams, it's possible they will get alarmingly close.