Nobody does rugby quite as weirdly as the Welsh. Except South Africa. Just as the rest of the world is putting the World Cup behind them, so exhausted on the international stage that the mere prospect of a Test match is enough to trigger palpitations, the two countries are preparing to face each other on Saturday.
It is in name a celebration of the centenary of the first Springbok tour. Or you might say it is a chance to play out the 2007 Marseille quarter-final that never was. Wales, should a reminder be necessary, lost to Fiji in Nantes and never went further south. But whether you see this fixture through history or fantasy, what it is above all is sadomasochism on a pretty kinky scale.
In the brief time that has elapsed since the World Cup, Wales have sacked their coach, Gareth Jenkins, appointed New Zealander Warren Gatland and left a caretaker in charge for this one-off. Nigel Davies, assistant to Jenkins but not necessarily courted by Gatland, is the 16th head coach of Wales in 21 years.
His one-game record should take some beating, but it would be unwise to bet on it standing for long. There is still time aplenty to sack Gatland before he starts on 1 December.
Jake White is still coach of South Africa, a World Cup winner, no less. But he is in something of a spin. So wild is the speculation surrounding his future career path that he makes Wales look like a model of job security.
The coach hangs on, but his players are dropping like flies. Each new day brings a fresh withdrawal. No captain John Smit, now with Clermont Auvergne; no star second-row Victor Matfield, pondering a move to Toulon. Welsh prospects grow by the hour. Just think: Nigel Davies, architect of victory over the world champions. And good night.
It is all a bit strange. But do not expect the Welsh players to bring any equilibrium to the party. They are as confused as anybody. Even that beacon of midfield common sense, Tom Shanklin.
'We don't really do one-off games,' said the centre. 'You know, we have series or campaigns, like the Six Nations or the World Cup. But this is an odd one.'
Shanklin did not flee after the exit to Fiji. 'I couldn't handle going away. I wanted to come home and stay local. I thought about the World Cup, how I'd enjoyed 2003 more. A World Cup should be about going to a different country for the whole time, I think. In 2003 we saw a lot of Australia over six or seven weeks.
'This time, we'd just settled into France, when we were back in Wales for the Australia game and then Japan. I'm not saying playing at the Millennium Stadium worked against us - that would sound daft - but 2003 felt like a better World Cup experience.
'Anyway, I took a week off. The time passed pretty quickly and then we were right back into it: a bit of Magners League, then a bit of EDF Energy Cup, now a couple of Heineken Cup rounds. And next is this. A bit weird, isn't it?'
The back of the rugby bus is where the jokers lurk. 'Yeah, that would be Alfie [Gareth Thomas], Martyn [Williams] and, er, me, I suppose. Now this really is strange,' said the only one remaining. 'There's nobody left to make no sense out of the nonsense. Alfie's gone and Martyn's retired. It'll be strange going into camp without them today. We were team-mates obviously, but close friends, too.'
What makes this game peculiar is perhaps the direction it faces. Despite the departure of two of the leading lights of the past decade, this is not yet the time to make a completely fresh start.
'After this game, everything will change. I saw Warren Gatland briefly after the [Cardiff] Blues game last week against Bristol, but the only thing I can say is that we don't really know what is going to happen. It makes it a little bit exciting, don't get me wrong. But it just means that this game is about revising moves we know, one last time.' A slight, rueful pause. 'Trying to get them right one last time.'
The players all know that the 2007 World Cup is still hanging around, lingering. But this game may draw a line under it all. After this, it will be time to move on.
'Yeah, who knows what lies ahead? I suppose if it's a bit strange for us, the players, it must be a lot worse for the coaches. Not just Nigel, but Rowland Phillips and Neil Jenkins. They really don't know what is going to happen.'
Shanklin will turn 28 in six days' time. The son of Jim, who won four caps for Wales, he was first capped back in 2001, against Japan. He was quietly building his tally of selections as a super-sub when he suddenly became altogether more indispensable.
He had moved to Cardiff from Saracens in 2003, but it was in the grand-slam season of 2005 when he took off. If not exactly the most elegantly gliding of outside-centres, he was direct, strong and intelligent. He had an instinct for the job. Where he went, the ball followed.
He was truly exceptional in the grand-slam season, the outermost of the midfield trio, with Gavin Henson and Stephen Jones inside him. Henson claimed all the headlines in that season and has not been out of them, despite playing only one international since.
But Shanklin, too, went down with injury, on the Lions tour of 2005, and his absence was much more keenly felt. It was his knee. It was thought for a time he would never play again. Bits that should have been moving smoothly were grinding.
But he's back. 'I'm OK. Fine. A little bit tired, but at least it's that tiredness that goes with having played a game at full blast. I have to say that David Young and Rob Howley, the coaches at Cardiff, really look after me. I can't train as much as I used to. The old knee can get a bit aggravated. But ...'
The 'but' is all about the sado-masochism. It's time to put the knee on the line again. Shanklin of Wales, bringing the curtain down on a strange time for Welsh rugby. Trying to usher in a new age, when all kinds of wild hopes may be rekindled. With a win over the world champions, even if very few of them are coming to Cardiff. No, this is a weird one.
