It would be true to say that there was not a lot of unfettered joy around the Wanganui camp on Saturday, despite its 28-10 Heartland Championship victory over Horowhenua Kapiti.
Quite bluntly, the home team did not perform as it expected - and was expected to.
And some Heartland results a few minutes later put Steelform Wanganui's present form into perspective. The next two opponents are Poverty Bay - four tries to nil against Horowhenua last week while Wanganui scored three tries to two on Saturday - and Wairarapa Bush, which went to Gisborne and scored six tries in walloping Poverty Bay 48-21 away from home.
And Wanganui has to play Wairarapa Bush in Masterton.
That first round win over Mid Canterbury also took on a different complexion with the news that Thames Valley had soundly put Mid Canterbury to sleep 31-17 at Paeroa.
So there was concern that Wanganui's performance was flawed. Energy and enthusiasm was a problem, and this led to blunders, dropped balls etc which saw Horowhenua lead 10-8 at halftime and probably be worth a larger lead at that stage.
There was improvement in the second half - and importantly a major boost from the bench players - but the mistakes continued and kept Horowhenua in the game too long.
In fact only the pace of Simon Dibben in running down Horowhenua wing Michael Tambour after he intercepted prevented the match going into its final 10 minutes with just one point between them.
What are the problems?
The set piece is fragile, and this team is showing a disconcerting ability to give away soft tries.
Mid Canterbury scored a couple last week, and Horowhenua's two tries - both to centre Perry Hayman - came from Wanganui errors. The first saw Tremaine Gilbert advertise his intended clearing kick and have it charged down, and the second came from a dropped ball on halfway.
The scrum problem will not go away, and worsened on Saturday with big Gene Ropoama again injuring the ankle he turned a couple of weeks ago.
He's out for at least a couple of weeks, maybe longer, and Shaun McDonough and Vaan Rauhina will have to carry a heavy load with only the inexperienced Keith Shaw as back-up.
Perhaps the sunny, calm day had something to do with it, but Wanganui's forwards were definitely off the boil.
Coach Jason Caskey insisted during the week the over-confidence would not - and should not - be a factor, but he wasn't happy afterwards.
"It was a step backwards. in the first half our ball carry and ball security was atrocious."
He said he mentioned before the game that complacency should not be an issue - he told them he would be upset if it was.
And it was.
"I said I don't want to talk about it, I don't want to hear about it, I don't want any excuses after the game. I said to them, 'most of you have been around long enough to know better than that.
"But they weren't."
Loosie Fraser Hammond and lock Jon Smyth didn't blot their copybooks in the first half, and Rhema Sagote was strong.
But the impetus from the bench from the departing Nemani Nagusa (outstanding), Vaan Rauhina, Nic Harding (wing) and halfback Matthew Koubaridis was a big plus for a struggling side.
Horowhenua's captain and No 7 Antony Fox was outstanding, Kearney was dominant and lock Ryan Shelford very strong.