In 2014, the Highlanders made the playoffs thanks to bonus points.
This year they could dip out because of the lack of bonus points.
But whatever way the season washes up, how a team can currently be fourth on the table and have five points fewer than the eighth-placed team brings into question the credibility of the competition.
As the Highlanders journey to Hamilton to take on the Chiefs, in what is a crunch match this Saturday, winning games appears to becoming more important than collecting bonus points.
In 2014, the Highlanders side picked up 10 bonus points from the 16 games in the season. That got them into sixth place and into the playoffs.
The Force in 2014 had actually won one more game - chalking up nine victories - but because it scored only four bonus points, it missed out to the Highlanders.
The Highlanders have just four bonus points from their nine games this season, and other sides are also struggling to get them.
The new bonus points try-scoring system is not doing the Highlanders any favours.
If the system which had been used this year in which a team got a bonus point for scoring four tries, no matter if it won or lost, or how many tries the opposition had scored, the Highlanders would have scored three try-scoring bonus points.
The new try-scoring bonus point is awarded when teams win a game by scoring three tries or more than the opposition.
The Highlanders have only once received the try-scoring bonus point and that was in the comfortable win against a toothless Rebels side in Melbourne.
It would have received a four-try bonus point against the Blues, a game it lost, and the matches against the Lions and Waratahs.
But in those games the Lions and Waratahs came back to score tries which negated the bonus point.
The Highlanders now sit in eighth position on the table, which is the final playoff place.
The side was passed by the Bulls over the weekend, who enjoyed a good win over the Force.
Whatever the merits of the new bonus-point system, the Highlanders can still make the playoffs and determine their own destiny.
What is strange under the new system is the Bulls and Highlanders have 28 points yet the Rebels, who lead the Australian conference, have only 23 points.
Much debate has centred around whether four New Zealand teams can make the playoffs.
It is possible, but only if the Australian sides keep losing. If two Australian sides start stringing some wins together, the chances of a fourth New Zealand team qualifying will diminish considerably.
