Mount Maunganui prevailed in a classic clash between teams with contrasting styles at Blake Park on Saturday, setting up a blockbusting Battle of Bridge final to the Bayfair Baywide premier club rugby competition.
The Mount had earned home field advantage by beating the same opposition at Murray Salt Stadium a week earlier, and immediately set about trying to knock two-time defending champions Te Puke Sports over for the third time this season.
The teams traded early penalties before the match's signature moment arrived in the 10th minute.
Te Puke 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 strong sense that Te Puke had a good chance of turning just 10 points down with the wind and sun at their backs.
So it proved after 49 minutes, as Te Puke 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 boot laces 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.
However, 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 string 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 loath to give the ball to Te Puke's 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 down 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.
Mount Maunganui 23
(Zar Lawrence 2 tries; Matt Golding 2 cons, 3 pens) Te Puke Sports 15 (Junior Tofa Va'a, Phil O'Reilly tries; Simon Rolleston con, pen)