One of Armidale coach Riley Hopwood's key messages to his players before Sunday's New England minor semi-final against Tamworth was to play for the 80 minutes.
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He knew that's what it would take to win.
And it did, with the result in the balance until the final whistle.
The Blues prevailed 24-17, fullback Jaia Richardson-Fowell the late hero, scoring in the left hand corner and then converting his own try to put them up by seven with five minutes to play.
"Obviously last week against Baa Baas we didn't play the full 80. I asked the guys to go out there today and build pressure and play the full 80 minutes and play for each other and they really did that," Hopwood said.
"They had to grind it out right to the end."
It was a bit of dejavu to their round encounter in Tamworth with the final score that day 24-17 too, and the pattern of the game very similar. It ebbed and flowed with both sides enjoying the lead at different times, and periods of momentum.
Eerily too it was 17-all before the Blues scored with, on that occasion, around eight minutes to go to get the win.
On balance on Sunday they probably had the better of the possession and territory but the Magpies defence was resolute, holding them out for five-10 minute periods on their line a couple of times.
"It was definitely a tough game and there were times when both sides could have won it," Hopwood said.
"But our boys, they stuck in there, they stuck to the game plan and they just had faith in each other and in what we've been training."
The Magpies started the better but couldn't make the most of their early possession, and then as their illdiscipline started to get them into a bit of trouble, Richardson-Fowell kicked the Blues out to a 6-nil lead.
But the visitors hit back immediately through prop Aaron O'Keefe, Liam Allan adding the extras to put them ahead 7-6 with 10 minutes to play in the first half.
It was the Blues though who went into half-time ahead with Richardson-Fowell kicking his third penalty right on the stroke of the break.
For the possession and territory they had, you could argue that they possibly get full value for that up just 9-6, but Hopwood wasn't too bothered.
"It was actually sort of a bit of a game plan. The last couple of weeks we've been sort of trying to push to score tries too often," he said.
"I just said to them we've just got to be patient, the tries will come, the points will come, we've just got to build the pressure and that's exactly what they did."
They struck first in the second half, Craig Norrie sneaking under the Magpies defence outwide to make it 14-7.
After a penalty to Allan to close within four, Blake Clout then read the play perfectly to snaffle the intercept and race away 40m to, with the conversion, put the Magpies ahead 17-14 with 15 to play.
They then though made a mess of the kick-off, and after a few phases later earning a penalty, Richardson-Fowell squared the game up at 17-all, setting up a grandstand finish.
Their season over, the Magpies' disappointment was palpable. They knew the opportunity they had to move on to the preliminary final.
"It's just disappointment for the boys," assistant coach Phil Cook said of the feeling in the immediate aftermath.
"They had a massive end to the season so to finish on a note like that..."
Their achilles heel in a lot of their games, he highlighted their illdiscipline as probably the thing that really hurt them. They gave away "a few penalties" that they "probably shouldn't have".
The positive was the defensive effort - it was "absolutely superb"- and the way they kept fighting for the 80 minutes.
The loss compounded the blues for the Magpies after the women were in the game previous pipped by Glen Innes 24-12 to also be knocked out, and their second and third grade sides were both beaten in their major semi-finals on Saturday.
For the Blues they now look ahead to Barbarians this coming Saturday, and getting a bit of "revenge" for that last round loss.
It was a thrilling first weekend of finals with St Albert's edging out Barbarians 22-19 in the first grade major semi-final to claim first spot in the decider, while in the women's, Albies ran in three tries in the last four minutes to eclipse the Barbets 32-29.
