Battered, but at least on two feet, local rugby found itself flattened again by a UK-inspired sucker-punch on Friday.
Its hand forced by the European continent's decision to institute new travel restrictions on southern Africa - a course of action that the World Health Organisation even labelled as a tad hasty - the United Rugby Championship (URC) had to postpone all of the round six and seven fixtures scheduled to take place in South Africa over the next two weekends.
Frustratingly, the potential interest that could've been cultivated for a tournament that's still struggling to capture the imagination of many fans in the country has now - at least temporarily - gone up in smoke.