Amid all the improvement of Australia's Super Rugby Pacific collective, the competition still feels like it is building towards a familiar conclusion -- one of its more incredible stats is starting to peer its head out from behind the horizon.
In the history of Super Rugby, no Australian team has won a playoff game in New Zealand. They are a collective 0-19 across the ditch in the finals dating all the way back to 1996.
While the Queensland Reds got their season back on track against the Blues on Friday night, producing a memorable first-half defensive display that went a long way to breaking the spirit of their Kiwi opponents, the Brumbies' six-point loss at home to the Hurricanes dealt a massive blow to their hopes of a top-two finish.
Having expelled a load of energy across the ditch on a heavy track in a brilliant shut-out win of Moana Pasifika in Round 10, the Brumbies missed the jump and seemed a step short of their customary Canberra gallop throughout the contest.
The Hurricanes enjoyed huge pay by attacking the Brumbies' wider channels, with four of their five tries coming through wingers Kini Naholo - who gave the hosts all kinds of defensive issues -- and Ngantungane Punivai, and the other through centre Billy Proctor.
Hurricanes coach Clark Laidlaw spoke to Stan Sport just after halftime, revealing how his side had identified the space on offer out wide. And while Stephen Larkham had the chance to talk to his own troops at the break, the Brumbies were unable to find a solution thereafter.
The defeat has left the Brumbies needing either the Crusaders or Chiefs to drop two of their five games in the run to the playoffs and, even then, that might not be enough for ACT to secure the top-two seeding that is so important in Super Rugby.
"I haven't really thought about the ladder at this stage, I thought that was a really good performance from the Hurricanes," Larkham said post-match. "They had really good variety with their attack, they held the ball for long passages; we defended quite well, we missed a few tackles out wide and they challenged us in that wide space, we scrambled well and then our forwards took over again and held them out for long periods on our line, which was good.
"But in the end, their ball movement, their recycle was pretty impressive out there tonight."
Larkham went on to say that he thought that was the Hurricane' best performance of the year to date, and it was hard to disagree, particularly given several notable absences through concussion after last week's draw with the Force.
No team, in fact, will want to run into a Hurricanes team playing like that in the postseason, though Laidlaw's side are no finals guarantees just yet either.
And it's that uncertainty that has made Super Rugby Pacific so engaging this season, and further endorses Rugby Australia's decision to ditch the Melbourne Rebels.
The addition of two of the Rebels' best players, Josh Canham and Lukhan Salakaia-Loto, certainly made a difference to the Reds on Friday night, as they grew New Zealand's collective Super Rugby drought in Australia this season by another 24 hours, before the Hurricanes upset the Brumbies.
The Reds locks were instrumental in a committed team performance that was built on their first-half defensive effort, when they limited the Blues to just one try, and held them up over the line on no less than four separate occasions.
It was the exact response the Reds needed after they were beaten by the Brumbies a fortnight earlier, that defeat a serious impediment to Queensland's own hopes of a top-two finish. But what the Reds have up their sleeve on the Crusaders, Chiefs and Brumbies is an extra game, yet Les Kiss' side will still need either of the Kiwi outfit to slip up significantly, too.
And the Reds now face successive away games in Suva, Sydney and Canberra, each of which carries its own unique challenge, and the last of which will almost certainly kill off the top-two hopes of the loser.
If the final five rounds play out as expected, it shouldn't mean that 2025 is deemed a failure for the Australian cohort - and this season has shown that any team that does not arrive ready to play on the day can be beaten, so there may be a twist or two yet - but Wallabies coach Joe Schmidt will be infinitely more hopeful than he was at the same juncture last year.
A 52% winning percentage against New Zealand teams through 11 rounds is an excellent return.
But when Super Rugby Pacific is desperately trying to differentiate itself from international rugby, or at least be an 18-week selection trial for the Wallabies and All Blacks, the fact that the Crusaders and Chiefs sit two games clear with five weeks to run will be one of the few things keeping chief executive Jack Mesley up at night.
For despite all the marvellous jeopardy this 11-team competition has brought us, it feels like we're headed for another all-Kiwi decider between two familiar foes. And while that will please New Zealand Rugby, it is not what the tournament really needs.