For the third straight year, we have an all-New Zealand final in Super Rugby Pacific.
The Blues and Chiefs will meet in the decider at Eden Park next Saturday night after defeating the Brumbies and Hurricanes respectively, the two losing finalists of the past two seasons now set to face off for the 2024 trophy.
Here are some of the key takeaways from the weekend's action.
ALL BLACKS FLUSH WITH NO. 8 OPTIONS AFTER SITITI SHOW-STOPPER
New All Blacks coach Scott Robertson will name his first squad next Sunday and the former Crusaders boss certainly has some big calls to make over the next week. At the top of the list will be a decision around Ardie Savea, whether to make him captain and exactly what jersey the reigning World Rugby Player of the Year should wear on his back.
Savea has spent the majority of the past few years at No. 8, but with Sam Cane's Test career effectively over - he is injured and has already announced he will not play international rugby beyond this season - there is an opportunity to shift Savea back to openside.
And that move is surely one Robertson is considering, given the form of Blues No. 8 Hoskins Sotutu, the rise of Hurricanes back-rower Brayden Iose and, as of the weekend, the incredible play of the Chiefs' Wallace Sititi.
Sititi was named man-of-the-match in the Chiefs' semifinal upset of the Hurricanes on Saturday, following a superb all-round performance when he had a direct hand in two of the visitors' tries and generally created havoc every time he touched the ball.
The Chiefs No. 8 was first in the right spot at the right time following a Hurricanes charge-down, showing his knowledge of the laws to scoop up a loose ball, put Luke Jacobson into the clear, from which his skipper then sent Cortez Ratima over for the game's second try.
Then later in the second half, Sititi picked off an intercept and sprinted 60 metres before he was tackled just short of the line, the Chiefs able to recycle quickly and score in the corner through Daniel Rona.
All in all, Sititi finished with the astonishing stats of 15 runs for 150 metres, two clean breaks, four beaten defenders and 13 tackles to boot. In just his first season of Super Rugby, Sititi has grown into the campaign with Saturday afternoon's game just his sixth run-on start of the year.
It may prove that Robertson has enough back-row depth in Savea, Sotutu, Dalton Papali'i, Luke Jacobson, Samipeni Finau, Ethan Blackadder and others for Sititi to be brought into the All Blacks at just 21 years of age, but he is undoubtedly a player of huge potential.
And should he dominate a mouth-watering head-to-head battle Sotutu, who has been arguably the standout player in Super Rugby this season full stop, then Sititi's case for a Test call-up may prove irresistible.
"I thought he was immense," Chiefs coach Clayton McMillan said. "He had a number of involvements in big plays. He's got a massive future.
"There were a lot of good rugby players running out there today and it was talked about in the media that this was like an All Blacks trial of sorts, well if it was then a number of our guys would be putting their names in pencil if not ink.
"You'd have to think he's as good a chance as anybody. He's been pretty consistent with his performances.
"He's young and still got a lot to learn but some people just have something about them that catches the eye and he's one of them."
BRUMBIES PAY PRICE FOR WOEFUL RESTARTS BUT PHYSICALITY A WORRY FOR SCHMIDT
Another year, another semifinal loss for the Brumbies in Super Rugby. Friday night's 34-20 loss to the Blues was their third straight defeat in the final four, their inability to finish in the top two and earn home ground advantage for a second weekend in the playoffs again proving critical.
That is now 18 straight losses for Australian teams in Super Rugby finals games in New Zealand, the 28-year drought stretching all the way back to the competition's first season in 1996.
The writing was on the wall early for this latest defeat with the Blues capitalising on their first try-scoring opportunity and then exploiting the Brumbies' inability to take the restart after they stayed in touch with two early penalties.
Twice the Blues answered immediately, first through Ricky Riccitelli and then Sam Darry, to open up a 19-6 lead, which they then grew to 27-13 by halftime when the game was as good as done.
Of more immediate concern than the restarts for Wallabies coach Joe Schmidt will be the ease at which Australia's best side were physically dominated by New Zealand opposition. First it was the Chiefs in Super Round, then the Blues twice in succession, the Brumbies simply having no answer to the Kiwis' route-one rugby that poured through the heart of their defence.
With the Brumbies expected to make up almost half of the Wallabies squad, Schmidt will need to find some steel across the other Australian franchises and hope the sum of the total parts present a far sterner physical challenge at Test level.
It's true the Brumbies were not helped by a series of poor decisions from referee James Doleman, including one blatant offside from Caleb Clarke and successive knock-ons from Finlay Christie, at critical stages in the first half.
But the correct calls would have done little to halt the Blues wave that found attacking the Brumbies defensive line all too easy.
IS SUPER RUGBY PACIFIC REALLY SERVING AUSTRALIA?
For the third straight year, there will be no Australian involvement in the Super Rugby Pacific final. In fact, you have to go all the way back to 2014 when the Waratahs were crowned champions to find the last Australian team that made it to the final day of the season.
That's 10 straight years when Australian interest in the biggest Super Rugby game of the year has effectively died a week before it takes place. Sure, the rusted-on rugby supporters will make an effort to watch the decider on Saturday, but for the casual fan a clash between the Blues and Chiefs won't really whet the appetite.
The Brumbies' third straight semifinal exit has as a result revived the conversation as to whether Super Rugby Pacific is really serving the best interests of Australian rugby, particularly when only the ACT side has made it to the final four in the three years of the competition.
The opposing argument across the Australian rugby community is that a domestic competition would ensure an Australian winner; that there would be greater collective interest as there would always be two groups of local fans invested in the decider; and that there would be a virtual "Wallabies trial" where players competing for the same spots would have one final chance to impress the national coach.
Certainly the 40,000 fans that made their way to Suncorp Stadium in 2021 for Super Rugby AU left an impression, as the Brumbies and Reds turned on a gripping spectacle that went past the final siren.
Such a switch is however not possible given Rugby Australia's joint venture with New Zealand Rugby, that is unless the two parties decided to dissolve the agreement that runs until 2030 amid the fallout from the Melbourne Rebels' exit.
That appears unlikely, with a potential rethink of provincial rugby in this part of the world more likely in seven years' time.
Reverting to a domestic competition has also been made tougher by the Rebels' exit, despite RA insisting they remained committed to rugby in Victoria and the state's pathways when they announced the franchise's demise.
What RA must do is work out exactly what it wants from provincial rugby, because at the moment the desired outcomes appear to be working against one another.
If the central objective is to improve the standard of the Wallabies, then it is generally agreed that playing against New Zealand opposition on a regular basis is a good idea. But if it is to drive broadcast investment, ensure Australian eyes are watching as many games as possible, and that an Australian team is crowned champion, then a domestic competition is probably preferable.
Meanwhile, it will be interesting to see whether a reduction to four teams and the Rebels players who are redistributed across the Waratahs, Reds, Brumbies and Force actually help improve the performance of those teams.
New Zealand has long argued that Australia only has enough talent to fill four, potentially three, competitive teams, so the 2025 season will be an interesting study as to whether that is indeed the case.