No matter where either side sit on the table, there's always plenty of feeling among the Armidale Blues and Barbarians when they come together.
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Saturday's soggy round four fixture was no different with a hard fought battle in the mud.
But it was the Armidale Blues who prevailed after they piled on points late to nab the 37-10 win and keep their unbeaten record in the New England Rugby Union season intact.
The slogfest saw a sloppy start and it was the Baas Baas were the first to put points on the board through Maurice Kelly five minutes in.
Edward Pitt had no trouble converting.
The Blues posted their first points via a Jayden Smith penalty goal.
It wasn't long after when the Blues' number 8 Tom Morgan sliced through after winning a line out.
Smith converted to give his side a 10-7 edge.
The Blues then suffered a blow when captain Jack Grant was taken off the field through injury.
They shuffled things around and the battle continued until half-time where the scoreline remained the same.
The second-half saw the Blues push out their lead and it didn't stop.
Corey Stace bagged a brace while Smith, Peter Cumming and Tim Brazier all crossed for tries for the Blues while the Baa Baas lone points in the second stanza came through a penalty goal to Pitt.
The final scoreline was 37-10 after the Blues' onslaught late in the game, something coach Riley Hopwood had planned for.
"We knew that they [Barbarians] would gas out," he said.
"They have a lot of big boys there and we just had to stick to our structure.
"We knew that the longer we played the game, we would wear out their forwards and the game would open up for us.
"And that is what the boys did. They stuck to it well."
The only low light for the Blues was losing Grant but Hopwood applauded his side for regrouping.
"It was a little bit disappointing to see Jack [Grant], our number 10 go down but Jayden [Smith] slotted in there and it kept linking on," he said.
"The boys had been practising that at training."
Hopwood was also happy to see the Blues adapt to the conditions.
"Obviously we had been practising for a bit of a wider style of game but in the mud we adapted and got it done," he said.
And it was even better to get it done against the Baa Baas.
"It is always a good win over them," Hopwood said.
"They are our rivals and last year they were getting it over us a little bit but it was really good to get one up there today."