It's easy for New Zealanders to become insular about their rugby and where it ranks in the world, but outside eyes can be revealing and useful in maintaining a sense of proportion in all things.
Former Wales Test three-quarter and regional coach Mark Jones has talked with the BBC's Scrum V podcast about his experience in New Zealand where he is working on the Crusaders' Super Rugby coaching team.
Jones said the move to New Zealand had been tougher on his family than him. He had a taste of what to expect when joining the Crusaders before Christmas. He headed home for the festive season before returning. His family joined him in mid-February.
They had almost immediately gone into Covid-19 bubbles and had been unable to strike up relationships with schoolmates and the same applied to his wife establishing contacts with fellow Crusaders families and school parents.
"It's been tough for them but hopefully they'll get the chance to start enjoying New Zealand a little bit," he said.
Jones said the Crusaders, like the other franchises, were attempting to get all the required protocols established during their preparation for competition now that New Zealand was moving down to Level 2.
"They've got a time frame that all the franchises are pretty comfortable with," he said.
Players had been maintaining fitness work either on their own, or within bubbles, and the job ahead would be integrating players back into a team environment.
With the Crusaders having the bye in the first weekend of the resumption of play, they had five weeks to get the players into a fit and healthy place for that return. It was similar to the pre-season and it was important to have the right amount of work done in preparation to avoid players suffering injuries as a result of not being ready.
Jones said the fact games would be played in empty stadiums would be interesting. Some players were motivated by the sight of home supporters lining the streets before games, wearing their team's colours and full of anticipation for the contest ahead.
At the same time it would be interesting to see how teams coped when getting into field positions where, under normal circumstances, they might expect to have the crowd roaring its encouragement.
"You're not going to have that mental spur on the pitch. That will be quite an interesting scenario but there will be some positives come out of it," he said.
Players would be hungry for action, having only had six games in the Super Rugby competition before the lockdown because it was a case of not being able to do what you loved most - playing the game.
"I've enjoyed the environment that I came into, the openness of the staff and the players, in particular, was awesome, coming from outside the country. The guys have been receptive to my coming in and bringing some ideas.
"They're open to learning and the one thing I have noticed, and it is not that much different to back home, but the thirst to get better is evident here. It jumped out at me straight away," he said.
That was evident from players coming out of three years in the Academy, just as it was with All Black lock Scott Barrett who was taking on captaincy of the side for the first time this year.
"No matter how long your training session was, they always do extras at the end of it. That was something that hit me in the face," he said.
There was not a negative view towards northern hemisphere rugby that he had experienced. That was because former Ireland international Ronan O'Gara had been with the side for two seasons before him and also coach Scott Robertson wanted to have different eyes and ears contributing to the team's development and asking why certain things were done.
Jones said while there were similarities in style and skillsets in New Zealand and Australian teams especially that was easily transferred to the All Blacks and Wallabies, it also made coping with a different style of play a little harder.
He felt among the forwards, the New Zealanders were more rounded than the squads in the northern competitions.
Because of the northern preference for the set-piece, and the conditions in which they played, they had some advantages in that area, although it was somewhere that southern times also prided themselves on being competitive.
Jones said he had appreciated Robertson's approach and related the comment the coach had made to him after Jones completed his first presentation to the side after a pre-season game.
Robertson said afterwards he was pleased with what Jones had said but pointed out to him that he said 'don't' five times. He asked him not to do that and instead of saying, "Don't take your eyes off the ball," he should say, "Keep your eyes on the ball."
Jones said it was a little thing but it had been instructive for him in that Robertson and the Crusaders' style was to look at things positively and that was something that came through what they did on the field.
"We've got a bit of an agreement now, I've got to pay up every time I use the word 'don't," he said.