Aisle be back: The bye week and Shields to debut for England in June?

It's bye week. The editor sometimes says take a break too. Probably if you're reading this, you're proffering similar advice.

It's just that I can't. Despite us being top of the entire Super table, playing largely clinical rugby, we're only three points clear of our deadliest rival. It's not like the six points we'd have, if we'd survived the Bulls opener. I would have taken the week off then.

I think I will call this the Theory of Rugby Relativity Anxiety.

To be honest, it's really anxiety about those Crusaders, who sit in fourth, on 24 points.

Yes, the Lions are on 25 but with an extra match played.

In third place sit the Waratahs. Something not even scripture can offer guidance on.

But they're the Waratahs, and given the Aussie conference's status, you might as well have the third slot labelled insert team XXXX based on whichever side manages to briefly bob to the top after their local derbies.

Still three points is handy enough if you look on it optimistically. Would be nicer to have four, then you could even lose to the Saders in the crunch weeks and stay on top.

Somehow it feels like this bye, the last one for the Canes - barring the really long one everyone gets in the June international window - is coming a bit early in the current run.  That's two byes in 10 games.

Coming out of the bye there's the Sunwolves training run (sorry Sunwolves) who will have been pummelled the week before by the Crusaders. So who can do the best in improving their points differential?

Then we strike the Lions, a potential banana skin if they're not treated with respect.

But really the eye gets drawn to weeks 15 and 16 (May 25, away against the Crusaders; June 1 away against the Highlanders). That's probably, barring some upsets, where the conference will be clinched, if the Canes can manage wins in both.

The most grief done would be to the Crusaders if they can't stop us. That's because their next game is not easy, away to the Chiefs. Even if they win, they then face a longer bye break than the other Kiwi teams coming out of the international window. They'll be coming out after five weeks' break and straight into an away match against the Highlanders.

So, don't envy them that draw.

Of course actually by then (if you read the take on it from down South) the clouds will have parted, somewhere between 7 and 24 injured All Blacks will have returned from injury, and the march of the Hurricanes will be shown up to be a phoney one.

So it may appear that we're entering a period of relative trundling along, with not too many clutch matches, for us or the Crusaders. So that's where the relativity comes in. Will someone, assuming no-one loses, outscore on the bonus point front? Can a margin of three on the table, shrink to one, or grow to four or five?

Of course there's a chance of an upset. But not if either side plays remotely to its average output. Sorry both Blues fans, but you are in danger of becoming the new Sunwolves, and we've still got the old ones hanging around.

The Highlanders and Chiefs have less of a quiet life. both heading for South Africa and both facing the Sharks in their two games apiece. I wouldn't bet against someone suffering an amputation.

The other thing to watch out for is the curse of the injury. The Canes have gone pretty well on that front, but like the scene in Deerhunter, even playing the Reds does involve spinning the revolver chamber.

Dull part of the season? Don't you believe it.

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On the note of expecting the unexpected (that old Canes catchphrase), how do you feel about the odd prospect of Brad Shields playing for England in South Africa in this June’s international window.

Yes, you read that right. It’s all go if Fast Eddie wants to pick Shields, according to UK media reports today.

I wonder what Chris Boyd and co will make of that.

Do we want our inspirational skipper flogged to death or worse by Jones, or do we want him ready to roar back into action in the final key matches of the Super campaign?

I know what my preference is.

Kevin is a lifetime Hurricanes fan. He and his partner are on a two-year Volunteer Service Abroad posting to Vanuatu's Espiritu Santo island. He's working on a project to build a South Pacific World War 2 museum on the site of an enormous Allied base on the island. Check it out at www.southpacificwwiimuseum.com