It will be a battle of the bridge for this year's Baywide premier rugby final with Tauranga Sport taking on Mt Maunganui.
The Mount, who had home advantage against Te Puke Sports, immediately set about trying to knock the two-time defending champions over for the third time this season.
Both teams traded early penalties before the match's signature moment arrived in the 10th minute.
Sports had already shown a willingness to kick down the throats of the Mount's outside backs and were made to pay a heavy price.
In a flowing move eerily similar to one from the previous week, the outstanding Zain Butler fielded the ball deep in his own territory before setting off on a long and winding run through a broken chasing line.
He beat two men with his feet, two more with a thrust of pace that sent him straight up the middle of the field, then managed to hold off a couple more before finding his support ranging up on the left.
A couple of pairs of hands later the ball came to an overlapping Zar Lawrence, who casually jammed a defender off his left foot to dive over next to the posts.
Matt Golding added the conversion to make it 10-3, which stretched to 13-3 at the break.
For all the pressure they had endured there was a real sense that Sports were a good chance turning just 10 points down with the wind and sun at their backs.
So it proved after 49 minutes, as Sports hammered away at the Mount courtesy of some fine field kicking from the prodigious boot of Simon Rolleston.
The ball switched to the right where Rameka Poihipi picked a pass up off his bootlaces and fed Junior Tofa Va'a to score in the right-hand corner.
The conversion sailed wide, but the match had already taken on a different tone.
A Golding penalty after 56 minutes crucially pushed the lead out to 16-8, but when substitute Phil O'Reilly crashed over two wide of the ruck with 13 to go there was just one point in it.
The Mount lost a litany of close games to start the year, but to their credit showed impressive composure when it mattered most by not reverting far from their expansive approach.
They seemed loathe to give the ball to Sports' hungry, grinding forward pack before Rolleston sailed it down into their corners, so backed themselves to win territory and retain possession with ball in hand.
For all of that, this one might just have come down to a couple of bounces of the ball.
Rolleston unluckily smashed a punt more than 90m to kick it dead with only minutes to play, before another bounce fell in Mount's favour.
A Golding drop goal was partially charged in the final minute, leading to Lawrence claiming his second in the shadow of the posts after clattering into a couple of Sports players to snatch the ball on the bounce.
The conversion went over as time expired, ending Sports' fantastic reign and perhaps kick-starting a new era for Mount Maunganui rugby.
Te Puke Sports coach Craig Jeffries looked downcast at the final whistle, standing in the shadows of his side's post not far from where Rolleston's late kick that travelled dead originated.
"We didn't want it to finish - I'm gutted for everyone," said Jeffries.
"The Mount did well, they took their opportunities when they had them.
"To be fair, keeping it tight was our plan and they didn't allow us to do that. They did well in the first half, but I thought our guys really climbed into it in the second half and it was game on."
He was full of praise for his side, which lacked the firepower boasted by the Mount.
"I thought Phil O'Reilly coming on was big - just an old fella getting involved and loving it. He brings class wherever he goes.
"Rameka Poihipi is a class act at 40-years-old. I mean, he's a freak of nature.
"Guys like Lars Morrice had huge games, Nathan Harris again, but they all tried hard."
Mount coach Rodney Voullaire believes his side's tough start to the year paid dividends in the crunch as the clock ticked down.
"The boys have been doing the yards from October - the start of the year and those one-point losses really helped us out," said Voullaire.
"We've learnt a lot in closing out games, as you saw at the end there. We've done a lot of training trying to finish those ones off.
"We were really disappointed at the start of the season, we were just about there. It just proves that you have to keep training and it has paid off."
The late inclusion of Steamers hooker Harris was unexpected, but the first year Mount coach said that barely entered into his side's plans.
"We didn't expect Nathan Harris to play, but to be honest we didn't focus on any Bay boys at all.
"We did the same thing week in and week out and concentrated on ourselves. We had some flat periods, but it was good to see the reserves picked us up and got us going forward again.
"It's great to see the support and the crowd. Hopefully we can get that again next week. The boys are amping. Bring it on."
Mount Maunganui will face Tauranga Sports in the final after the regular season leaders beat a game Opotiki side 42-20 at Tauranga Domain.
The match was much closer than the score suggests, with in-form Tauranga Sports pivot Paul Morris proving the difference by kicking six from seven.
In Division One top seeds Poroporo and Rangiuru will meet in the final after doing away with Kahukura and Te Teko respectively at the weekend.
In division two Kawerau will meet Arataki in the finals and Opotiki will take on Tauranga Sports in the senior reserves Baywide final.