Retain the Ranfurly Shield on Wednesday night and all will be forgiven.
While the Hawke's Bay Magpies rugby side displayed character to fight back from a 25-3 deficit during Saturday night's 28-25 ITM Cup Championship loss to North Harbour in Albany they should never have allowed the hosts to establish that lead during the first 48 minutes of play. As was the case last year when the Magpies were beaten 23-10 by Taranaki in New Plymouth, the Magpies paid the price for head coach Craig Philpott and assistant Danny Lee's decision to make seven changes to their starting XV.
"Four of them were forced by injuries. Whether it was one or two or five or six changes they were written for us," Philpott said afterwards.
The biggest repair job in the build up to the Lions visit on Wednesday night will be reducing the missed tackle count. By halftime on Saturday night, the Magpies had missed 13 tackles, 13 more than in the first 40 minutes against Bay of Plenty the previous weekend and by the final whistle the Magpies had missed 28.
"Defence has been one of our strengths but we fell off a couple of one-on-ones and allowed Harbour to establish a bit of a lead," Philpott said.
The Magpies could have secured a late draw had captain for the night, hooker Ged Robinson, opted to take three points in front of the posts instead of a scrum in the 77th minute. Substitute No 8 Mark Atkins, who had earlier impressed with his impact, fumbled the ball at the back of the scrum, turned the ball over and the Magpies' faint hopes of a late victory were dashed.
"I had confidence in the boys trying to go for a win but that's rugby," Robinson said afterwards.
Earlier in the game at the 52nd-minute mark Robinson opted for a scrum in a similar location and halfback Ellery Wilson scored after the scrum.
So while it was easy to see where the confidence came from the Magpies should have secured the draw with the penalty and then chased the win from the kick off.
"Danny [Lee] and I were saying have a shot to each other in the coaches box but Ged and the boys were in the heat of battle and could sense Harbour were struggling so we support the decision to go for the five-pointer."
In his post-match interview, Robinson admitted his troops were too complacent at the start when they allowed North Harbour to establish "too much of a big lead". However, Philpott said he didn't detect any complacency during the build up or in the dressing room before kickoff.
"The feeling was good and we proved that in the second half when we played some decent footy.
"There was no doubt about the importance we placed on the game. Now we have to win two of our remaining three games to secure a home semifinal," Philpott said.
In addition to sharpening up their defensive work the Magpies will have to improve their lineouts. Far too often they failed to secure their own throws.
Magpies winger Mikey Vuicakau made a memorable return from injury when he replaced Shannan Chase in the 51st minute. With an average gain of 3.5m from six carries and some gutsy defensive work Vuicakau should get the nod ahead of Chase for Wednesday night's challenge.
Centre Robbie Fruean with a rolled ankle and second five-eighth Billy Ropiha with a knock to the jaw are the Magpies only new injury concerns after the visit to QBE Stadium. Fruean was again busy with an average gain of 11m from his 10 carries and six tackles.
Fullback Richard Buckman maintained his high standards for the Magpies with at least three try-saving tackles among his seven and an average gain of 8.1m from from 14 carries. Robinson and No 8 Gareth Evans both had high work rates in a pack which will perform better when captain Brendon O'Connor and vice-captain Ash Dixon return.
With a win against premiership defending champions Canterbury and the Ranfurly Shield holders within four days and a total of three victories for the season, Harbour have shaken off their Championship easy-beats tag.
"Three games within eight days [Harbour played Auckland the previous Saturday] was always going to be a test but the boys showed a lot of heart," Harbour vice-captain and lock Hayden Triggs said.
"It was a hard game due to our own mistakes. It was great to grind it out, we're putting pride back into the North Harbour jersey."
Prop Greg Pleasants Tate, lock Gerard Tuioti-Mariner and openside flanker Josh Blucher, who made 22 tackles, were prominent among the Harbour pack. Fullback Robbie Robinson, winger Tevita Li and first five-eighth Matt McGahan were classy in the winning backline.
Nth Harbour 28 Magpies 25 Albany