There were two Welsh rugby wins over the weekend — three if you factor in the Taulupe Faletau and Rhys Priestland-inspired Bath success against Gloucester in the Gallagher Premiership.
The Scarlets can lay claim to most satisfaction after coming up with a performance and a result against Benetton in Llanelli.
A victory also came the way of the Ospreys, if not with the flourish or style to please all.
Cardiff Blues and the Dragons both came unstuck against Irish opposition.
MARK ORDERS assesses the winners and losers.
Winners
Taulupe Faletau and Rhys Priestland
The temptation might have been for Taulupe Faletau to third-gear it for Bath against Gloucester at The Rec last Friday night.
After all, Wales are playing England this weekend and he wouldn’t have wanted to pick up a bump.
He’d also faced Scotland six days earlier and was feeling a bit battered and bruised at the start of the week.
But coasting or hiding isn’t what Faletau is about.
He turned in a sublime performance that earned him the man-of-the-match award from adjudicator Ugo Monye, who said of him: “He is a magical player.
“You need big men and you need world-class players to step up on big nights. Taulupe Faletau has been magnificent in attack and defence.”
The thing is with Faletau it all seemed so effortless.
Legend has it that at the peak of his powers the Zen-like former tennis player Bjorn Borg had a resting heart rate of 35 BPM. The suspicion is you could take five off that figure again when assessing Faletau. He is calmness personified. In the heat of battle against Gloucester he appeared completely unruffled.
Priestland also enjoyed a memorable evening.
Needing to slot a long-range shot at the sticks to win the game for Bath in the closing minutes, the ex-Wales fly-half proved up to the job to secure his side a 16-14 success. It was his 27th successful kick in a row. In the history of the Gallagher Premiership, only Mark van Gisbergen and Johnny Wilkinson (both with 28) have put together longer streaks.
Ice-cool, someone said on social media after the game.
It applies to both of Bath’s Wales internationals.
Three Welsh openside flankers
What can be said of Ellis Jenkins?
It had been 819 days since his last competitive game of rugby, yet his display for Cardiff Blues against Connacht was on another level.
There were two turnovers, 15 tackles, 22 metres made from eight carries, high-quality support play, awareness, lovely hands — the full package.
The weekend had started with a tough, combative effort from the Dragons’ Ben Fry against Leinster. There are in-yer-face players and then there’s this guy, a nightmare to play against and so good at what he does. Twenty tackles, three possession steals and a dozen runs from Fry were at the heart of his team’s effort.
And then there was Jac Morgan, in outstanding form in his own comeback game for the Scarlets, strong over the ball and a powerful threat in the loose. After the former Wales U20s captain’s first-half display against Benetton, which saw him bag two tries, Tom Shanklin said: “If Jac Morgan has another half like that, he will be called into the Wales squad.”
Little wonder the Scarlets youngster is in demand as he heads for the end of his contract.
Rhys Webb
It's been a tough few weeks for Rhys Webb, what with his being omitted from the Wales squad and the national coach questioning his form.
How to respond?
Well, let's just say that two man-of-the-match performances isn’t a bad way to answer the form question.
Webb impressed for the Ospreys against Zebre on Saturday with his vision, seeing things a split-second before anyone else on the pitch, and his leadership.
It was a case of letting his rugby do the talking.
Is Pivac listening? That we do not know. But it was a fine effort from the Ospreys' scrum-half.
Hadleigh Parkes
The ex-Wales international scored a try on his debut for Panasonic Wild Knights in Japan over the weekend. A lot of people would have raised a glass to that one.
Scrum V bit on Mike Evans
Mike Evans was the type of man every rugby club needs, one who gives his heart and soul to the collective effort on and off the field. Clubs are always lucky to have his sort on board. In a way such individuals are local heroes.
All this came through in a short BBC Scrum V tribute to Mike, a St Peters RFC legend, who was team manager when The Rocks achieved their famous win over Cardiff RFC in 1993.
He passed away on Christmas Eve, aged 64.
His son Owen Evans spoke movingly and with eloquence about the events of that day and how much his father meant to him, the club and all who knew him. .
It won’t console Owen much, but he did his dad proud.
Losers
Questionable calls
Dai Young’s team had their chances to win against Connacht in Galway. They secured more ball than the hosts over the 80 minutes but ended up on the wrong end of a 32-17 defeat.
It’s an understatement to say some of their supporters were disappointed by a number of key calls in the match. There was a line-out that may just have been the most not-straight delivery since Steve Harmison sent the opening ball of the 2006-07 Ashes straight to second slip.
Sadly for the Blues, Jarrad Butler scored from the back of a subsequent maul. Credit Bernard Jackman in TV commentary for calling out the accuracy of the throw.
Late on, Abraham Papali'i forced his way over for the hosts, with the score being awarded despite referee Andrew Brace getting in the way of a tackle attempt from Max Llewellyn.
The protests weren’t all one way, it needs to be said.
There appeared to be a forward pass in the run-up to the first try for the visitors which wasn’t picked up.
But the look of disbelief and anger on the faces of some Blues players suggested they felt their team had come off second best on more of the big decisions.
Social media wouldn’t have made nice reading for Brace on Saturday evening.
But people care about their teams.
A lot of the anguish appeared justified.
Entertainment in Swansea
It wasn’t good.
In fact, fixating on a bowl of soup for three hours might have been more enjoyable.
The Ospreys were missing their current Wales internationals and Zebre are not a good team.
The fare lived down to expectations.
The sooner PRO14 games are just played outside international windows the better.
Dragons
Should they have tried to go 80 metres upfield to score a late try that could have won them the game against Leinster on Friday evening? Or should they have done as Sam Davies did and kicked the ball out of play and settled for a bonus point?
The assumption is a fair number of their supporters would have wanted them to go for broke.
But it didn’t happen, with the suggestion being that the bonus point might come in handy if qualification for Heineken Champions Cup places is expanded again for next term.
It may not be, of course.
Whatever, the sight of Davies seemingly operating to orders and kicking the ball out of play was something only hard-headed pragmatists would have enjoyed.
A chance of a famous win was spurned.
For a lot of us, that's deflating.
