The Waratahs and ACT Brumbies are the only two unbeaten sides in the competition after three rounds but Australian teams also made impressive starts last year before New Zealand powers reasserted themselves at the business end of the competition.
Wins for the Waratahs over the Queensland Reds and Fijian Drua were all well and good but victory on Friday over a Hurricanes team packed with test players eager to impress new All Blacks coach Dave Rennie would lay down a serious marker.
The Waratahs have not beaten the Hurricanes in eight matches going back to 2015 and the New Zealanders will be determined to get back to winning ways after going down to the Drua in a Lautoka rainstorm last week.
"The Hurricanes are a good side and we will no doubt see a different version of them, with difficult conditions against the Fijian Drua last weekend," said Waratahs coach Dan McKellar.
"It is going to be tough but it is a challenge that this group wants and is ready for."
McKellar has some of Australia's best backs at his disposal in the likes of Max Jorgensen and Joseph Suaalii but it has been the power of the pack that impressed in the first two rounds before the Waratahs sat out week three with a bye.
The Hurricanes pack will be reinforced by influential All Blacks flanker Du'Plessis Kirifi and test prop Pasilio Tosi, who both missed the start of the season because of injury.
"We're starting to look a wee bit more like the 23 we'd thought we'd have at the start of the year," coach Clark Laidlaw said.
"We're bloody determined to win this week, for sure."
The Brumbies, who top the standings on 14 points, have already laid down two markers with the thrashing of the Canterbury Crusaders in Christchurch followed by a last-gasp win over the powerful Auckland Blues in Canberra.
They host the Reds on Saturday in the Australian capital having been given something of a boost when coach Stephen Larkham signed a contract extension until the end of the 2028 season on Wednesday.
The Reds recovered from their opening loss to the Waratahs with a decent win over the Otago Highlanders last week in which flyhalf Carter Gordon showed he was getting back in the groove after a long spell out of the game.
In New Zealand, the Waikato Chiefs will be looking to get back to winning ways against Moana Pasifika in Hamilton on Friday after a loss to the Crusaders last week.
The eighth-placed Highlanders take on ninth-placed Western Force in Dunedin on Saturday before a blockbuster clash between the Blues and the reigning champion Crusaders at Eden Park.
