The Car Company Tasman Griffins coach Dan Perrin jokingly suggested that he'll have his team play 40 minutes of rugby ahead of their next game.
The Griffins are fast earning a reputation as a second half team after another frustrating - and scoreless - first half performance against Canterbury Country at Trafalgar Park on Saturday.
But as they'd done in their two previous wins over West Coast and Buller, the Griffins finally kicked into gear to register the second half points they needed to complete a 33-24 win over a tough Country outfit.
It was an important first-up win to kick-start the Griffins' South Island invitation series campaign although an uncompromising Country team didn't do them any favours after the Griffins had trailed 3-0 at halftime.
They'd eventually outscore Country by five tries to three with reserve hooker Brendan Asomua-Goodman coming off the bench to score twice, including their fifth try inside the final minute of play to crucially deny Country a losing bonus point.
The Griffins had spent a good deal of the first half camped inside their own territory as handling overs and turnovers gave them ample opportunities to test their defensive structures.
Their dominant scrum at least offered a positive note ahead of their next game against Canterbury Metro although ironically, it was from a tighthead - the ball being kicked through - that Country scored their opening try.
The lead changed three times during the second half as an early try to reserve hooker Brendan Asomua-Goodman was countered by two quick Country tries, to winger Kieran Miekle and fullback Mark Maitland, as the visitors took a 17-7 lead after just eight minutes.
Then the Griffins began their customary resurgence as tries to winger Fletcher Matthews, reserve first five-eighth Andrew Knewstubb and other winger Tomas Aoake, finally put them ahead 26-17 with 14 minutes remaining.
A second try to Maitland quickly had Country back in touch at 26-24 with three minutes on the clock, before Asomua-Goodman struck at the death to seal a head-earned win.
The injection of both Asomua-Goodman and Knewstubb off the bench helped provide a vital second half spark, with a clever Knewstubb chip kick setting up Matthews' try before Knewstubb later stole the ball off his opposite Brook Retallick to score their bonus point try.
"The guys starting the game for us are doing their job and breaking teams down and that just opens up a lot of opportunities in that second half," coach Perrin said.
"But yeah, Brendan, Stubby, [fullback] Stein [Schreiber] and [winger] Kim Bateman, they all just followed on the good work from the boys who broke them down early.
"It was a pretty tough game to watch really. They were a hard outfit to break down and we were probably our own worst enemies at times. But I think when we played and backed ourselves like we've been asking of them, it came off for us."
AT A GLANCE
Tasman Griffins 33 (Brendan Asomua-Goodman 2, Fletcher Matthews, Andrew Knewstubb, Tomas Aoake tries, Eli Kneepkens con, James Hawkey 3 con) Canterbury Country 24 (Mark Maitland 2, Kieran Miekle tries, Brook Retallick 3 con, pen) HT: 0-3.