It mightn't have been that pretty but Pirates co-coach Jack Walsh has described Saturday's win over Scone as "a good stepping stone".
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"It was a gritty win, a tough win but there were some big positives to come out of it," he said.
One of those positives, and for him and dad Garry arguably one of the most encouraging things, was that they showed that they can grind it out.
It was one of those games where at no point did Walsh really feel like they were in control, the final 38-23 scoreline, in his view, not a true reflection of the game.
It was 14-10 from a fair while and then 17-15 mid-way through the second half.
"They made us work for it, I can promise you that," he said.
Not that they expected anything different, especially down at Scone.
"We spoke during the week that it wasn't going to be easy but we had to go down there with the intent that we wanted to and the right attitude to make sure that we were in the right headspace for it," he said.
Walsh has a few times through the season made reference to their attitude, and noted it about Saturday's performance.
"I said at half-time, you can see the intent and the attitude and the effort's there, we just need to put it all together," he said.
He conceded they probably got "lucky" with the bounce of the ball a couple of times, which helped them get a bit of ascendancy late.
That wasn't to take anything away from the win and the "huge effort" they put in to get the result.
They showed a lot of grit and determination, particularly defensively.
"Scone had some really good opportunities on some field position that they earnt, and defensively we were fairly strong again defending on our line," Walsh said.
He also noted a couple of pivotal plays from a couple of players.
Conrad Starr came up with "a really good steal" on their line to negate a Brumbies raid.
Another time, Sam Collett made an 85m run down the field.
"There were 15 blokes on the field and I think everyone had a crack at him and no-one got him," Walsh said.
Toby Maslen was another he made mention of.
"He was huge," he said.
After starting at seven, Maslen pushed into hooker when they brought Cameron Reynolds on, and held his own the 40 or so minutes he played there.
In the other game on Saturday Narrabri withstood a late charge to hand Moree their first loss of the season.
Up 31-10 at one stage, the Blue Boars, who commemorated their 60th anniversary over the weekend, held on to win 38-31.
