Three weeks down and a trio of teams stand out from the crowd in the Guinness PRO14.

Toyota Cheetahs, Leinster and Scarlets are all three from three, and in the case of the first pair, with a bonus point in each victory.

The Cheetahs have a strong claim to being the best story of the early season, the teams they have beaten have combined to go 5-1 in the rest of their matches, while the Cheetahs are averaging a scarcely believable 50 points a game.

Leinster, meanwhile, will point to the fact that they have already gone on the road and won against a Final Series team last year, Benetton, while also maintaining that perfect record.

And even the Scarlets, with 13 points from 15, can point to a win at Scotstoun against last year’s runners-up Glasgow Warriors, not to mention an opening success against high-flying Connacht.

The Bloemfontein Ballers

Realistically though, this start to the campaign has been dominated by the Cheetahs, whose worst result was a 40-16 win over Munster.

They have the top points scorer in the league, the ageless Ruan Pienaar (38), the top try-scorer, Rhyno Smith (5), and even his closest challenger, hooker Joseph Dweba (4).

Smith and Anthonie Volmink are out in front in terms of clean breaks (9) and Tian Schoeman is the king of the offload (8).