Australian rugby has not seen a provincial weekend of such interest for some time.
And with the Wallabies coaching situation having been confirmed a couple of months ago, those responsible for the Joe Schmidt-Les Kiss succession plan at Rugby Australia might just be shifting nervously in their Moore Park seats.
For while Kiss' promotion to the job isn't a bad decision, the fact that two other coaches - one who was firmly in the mix and the other only given a meeting out of good will - will see their club sides run out in two of the biggest fixtures anywhere in the world this weekend, is worth noting.
The first is Stephen Larkham, whose Brumbies must halt 29 years of Super Rugby history and become the first Australian team to win a playoff game in New Zealand in 21 attempts.
The other? Michael Cheika, the man whose shadow seemingly always hovers above Australian rugby and whose Leicester Tigers will on Saturday night [AEST] chase a first English Premiership crown in 12 years.
If the Tigers do lift the Gallagher Premiership trophy in Twickenham this weekend, Cheika will become the first coach to have won the Super Rugby, European Cup and English Premiership titles, making him arguably the most complete provincial rugby coach of all time.
While Scott Robertson's Super Rugby dominance with the Crusaders was extraordinary and Mark McCall tasted both English and European success with Saracens, Cheika's resume across the Waratahs, Leinster and potentially Leicester will break new ground should the Tigers defeat Bath.
More on Cheika in a moment, but his interview with the Sydney Morning Herald last weekend was a fascinating read.
Larkham, meanwhile, will for the third straight year take his team across to New Zealand for a Super Rugby semifinal. They have, however, perhaps never been better placed to end Australia's playoff drought across the ditch.
Larkham this week said that his team was peaking at the right time and while a hiccup against the Crusaders in the final regular season round cost them a home semifinal, their confident, and clutch, performance against the Hurricanes last Saturday was arguably their most complete of the year.
Hindsight is a cheap tool in sport; regardless, the question must be asked as to whether RA executives have pulled the right rein, or at least did they place too much importance on "continuity"?
Even before Schmidt confirmed he would not seek a contract extension, a decision he later reviewed to accommodate Kiss' existing contract with Queensland, the Reds coach was deemed the Kiwi's heir apparent.
Much of that was down to the fact that the two men had worked together previously in Irish rugby and had, as a result, a similar philosophy on how the game should be played. Kiss' promotion to the top job in the Australian game would be neat and tidy, at least after a solution was found that would allow him to see out his three-year deal at Ballymore.
But while the Brumbies are in another Super Rugby semifinal, the Reds season ended a week earlier for the second straight year. Under Kiss the Reds have produced stunning victories away in Christchurch over the Crusaders, and at home over the Chiefs and Blues, but have lacked the requisite consistency to go deep into the season.
So while Larkham oversees the final Brumbies preparation in New Zealand today, Kiss will instead front up in Adelaide as part of RA's promotion of the AU-NZ Invitational game against the British & Irish Lions, the team he will coach after the Reds face the tourists 10 days earlier.
That has only further put RA's Wallabies decision in the spotlight.
Cheika, meanwhile, was never a serious candidate to replace Schmidt. Having been burned by the Eddie Jones fiasco, RA boss Phil Waugh, chairman Daniel Herbert and the rest of board were never any chance of giving another former Wallabies coach a second crack at the role so soon after Jones' ill-fated return.
That was evident the moment Cheika was spotted in such a public sitting with Waugh in North Sydney not long after Schmidt's original exit had been confirmed.
But that shouldn't mean he is blacklisted from the job for good either. By the time Kiss' first Wallabies contract is up in 2028, the only players still potentially playing Test rugby from Cheika's 2019 World Cup squad would be Allan Alaalatoa, Lukhan Salakaia-Loto and Taniela Tupou and, even then, they too could have all called time on their international careers.
It would therefore be a fresh crop of players Cheika has to work with, a group who were not burdened by his approach of the past, nor caught up in the Israel Folau saga that split the squad in 2019. Cheika is desperate for another crack at the Wallabies and a win this weekend would only strengthen his argument that he deserves it.
In the meantime, Wallabies great Tim Horan's comments, that he not be lost to the Australian game for good, must be heeded.
"There should be enough water that's gone under the bridge, and board members have left, [former RA boss] Raelene Castle has gone... I just don't think we can afford to lose him," Horan told the Inside Line podcast.
"If he comes back to Australia, rugby can't afford to lose the IP, intellect, the coaching ability of Michael Cheika, even if he goes and coaches coaches at Super Rugby level, or coaches at junior level, we lose too many of those younger coaches."
Larkham at 51, meanwhile, has time on his side; the hope for Australian rugby in the meantime is that he is not poached away overseas.
And while few Australians with an interest in rugby can argue that there was not a reasonable case to appoint Kiss to the Wallabies job, that his two decades worth of coaching, across Australia, South Africa, Japan, Ireland and England, did not stack up, there is a lack of silverware to underline it.
Cheika has the chance to add to his trophy cabinet this weekend, and Larkham to move within one game of following suit - both results would only add further weight to the idea that continuity was prioritised over the ability to take teams to the final day of the season.