Steelform Wanganui scraped home by a mere point after a stern tussle with King Country in a pre-season Heartland rugby match at Turangi on Saturday.
Coach Jason Caskey gave all 27 squad members a run during the game played in four quarters.
Wanganui scored five tries that were all converted to produce a 35-34 victory.
Caskey said King Country took the pre-season seriously and played accordingly, most of their points coming from the boot. "It was a bit of a stern test, especially up front in the forwards," Caskey said.
"We had a pretty rigorous workout on the Friday to prepare and I'm happy to say our men executed most of the set pieces we practised. Because of the workload on Friday there was a bit of fatigue creeping in by the final quarter. We were up 21-6 at one stage then we allowed them to get back into the game. They did it mainly with kicks though."