Connacht, for so long during the early years of the Celtic League the perennial chopping-blocks, could go clear at the top of the Guinness PRO12 table. For a province that finished rock bottom three seasons running between 2007 and 2010, that would be some achievement.
Had it not been for the Scarlets' last-minute home win over Munster on the strength of Steven Shingler's long-distance penalty, John Muldoon and company would already be sitting pretty on the perch occupied for most of last season by Glasgow Warriors.
While Muldoon has endured too many hard times to fall into the trap of getting ahead of himself or read too much into early results, there is no escaping the fact that Connacht are off to a flier - four wins out of five, 20 points from a maximum 25.
They hadn't won in Swansea for more than a decade which made last Saturday's win there over the Ospreys all the sweeter, thanks in no small way to Matt Healy's second try of the season and Bundee Aki's first.
Saturday night at 6.45pm will be another test of Connacht's capacity to stay the course, this time against the very opponents who broke their winning home streak last season, Edinburgh.
The Scots' 16-13 win in early January brought Pat Lam's team down with a bump eight days after they had ushered in the New Year by ushering Munster out. On a tumultuous occasion, they had beaten their local rivals 24-16, three-one on tries touched down by Kieran Marmion, Craig Ronaldson and Alastair Muldowney.
In that respect, Ireland's western province is top of the heap after five rounds with 19, a total matched by Cardiff Blues who ran in eleven in one match, at home to Zebre. It took Connacht more than twice as long to score that many last season, reaching the total against Ulster in Belfast on Boxing Day.
And how appropriate that Connacht's blast out of the blocks should coincide with Muldoon reaching mighty landmarks in his one-club career. The skipper, a Galwegian from Portumna on the banks of the Shannon, played his 250th match last month, in Glasgow.
Some day soon he will be the first in the history of the competition to make 200 appearances in what is now the Guinness PRO12. Not for nothing, therefore, does Lam describe Muldoon as 'the ultimate Connacht man,' the player who 'embodies every single one of our values.'
At 32 going on 33, the most durable of back row forwards still has time on his side to get Connacht into the European Champions' Cup, a goal which slipped through their fingers during the frantic finish to their play-off showdown at Gloucester last May.
He joined Connacht as a 19-year-old in 2001 which just happened to be when another back row forward, Richie McCaw, made his Test debut for the All Blacks at Lansdowne Road. Muldoon's first-team debut, in 2004, came during a season which ended with the Scarlets being crowned champions.
Five rounds into the current campaign, the Welsh region is the only one of the twelve to have won the lot, not that they could have left it much later against Munster last weekend. For most of the match it appeared odds-on that last season's beaten Finalists would be the only team with five wins out of five.
Instead they succumbed to two late Shingler penalties. The Scarlets are home again on Friday in the first of the Welsh derbies, hoping to make it six out of six this season at the expense of the Dragons.
In that event, the West Walians will set a club record, eclipsing the nine-match unbeaten run during their championship-winning season of 2003-4. They won their last four fixtures last season, two in Italy (Zebre and Treviso), two in Wales (Dragons at Newport, Blues at home).
Aided and abetted by three tries in two starts from their Canadian wing DTH van der Merwe, the Scarlets have already claimed a formidable Irish hat-trick - beating Ulster, Leinster and Munster in successive home matches.
Round Six opens on Friday night at 6pm on opposite sides of the Irish Sea, at Parc y Scarlets and Thomond Park for the first all-Irish affair of the campaign between teams who are usually to be found at the top or within striking distance of it - Munster and Ulster.
They were almost inseparable last season, Munster edging home over the two games by a single point - 44-43. Tries from scrum half Duncan Williams and No. 8 Robin Copeland helped Munster nose home 21-20 in Limerick last November before a crowd of more than 17,000.
The return match, witnessed by another 17,000-plus in Belfast last May, was even closer, ending all-square at 23-23. Just as the two points gained for Munster proved crucial in their run to the Guinness PRO12 Final, so the two dropped by Ulster exposed them to a semi-final in Glasgow.
Zebre, fresh from their first victory of the season over Edinburgh, again have home advantage when they entertain the Cardiff Blues so will be seek ingrevenge for their opening day result at BT Sport Arms Park.
After successive away defeats by Munster and Leinster, the defending champions Glasgow Warriors return to Scotstoun on Sunday anxious to make up lost ground against another team equally anxious to do likewise, the Ospreys. Both will hope to reintroduce more of their Rugby World Cup contingents.
The same can be said of Leinster for their first continental mission of the season, in Treviso at Stadio Monigo where the Italians go for their opening win after taking losing bonus points from four of their five matches.
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