Wanganui celebrate becoming the first union to win the Meads Cup three years in a row after their 30-14 victory over Horowhenua Kapiti on Saturday afternoon.
First you play with your head, then you play with your heart.
Steelform Wanganui have done what many considered impossible when they wrapped up the Mitre 10 Heartland Championship's first ever Meads Cup three-peat with an emphatic 30-14 win against an overmatched Horowhenua Kapiti at Levin Domain on Saturday.
Keeping parity up front against the hosts big pack and with composure from their back three, who were peppered with standard territory kicks from a very strange bouncing ball on the domain surface, Wanganui were simply too experienced and had too many weapons for the home side to counteract.
For the first time in 2017, Horowhenua Kapiti could not implement their 10-man rugby game plan and found it impossible to break the habit of a season in the final 30 minutes.
Scoring three tries to one, Wanganui's clutch players all stood up, with winger Cameron Crowley pulling one of his most vintage performances off the top shelf.
Whether sniping through the Horowhenua Kapiti backline or sprinting back on cover defence to snuff out kicks and bring down bigger men around their bootlaces, Crowley's workrate was sensational.
Locks Campbell Hart and Sam Madams destroyed the Horowheua Kapiti lineout, forcing opposing hooker Nathan Kendrick and his replacement David McErlean to take an age to get their throw in, and rarely did it go to the jumper's hand.
With a few heart racing exceptions, fullback Nick Harding, winger Simon Dibben and Crowley were able to handle the probing kicks of Horowhenua Kapiti's linchpin first-five James So'oailo, halfback Trent Reti and visibly frustrated import fullback Andrew McDougall.
The normally radar So'oailo missed two of his five kicks, and then began missing touch finders as Horowhenua Kapiti could not grind their way to superior field position.
It seems every season, Wanganui looks around for first five talent and tries out the options, but once again it was the reliable Dane Whale delivering when the silverware was on the line, including finally telegraphing a drop goal to seal the cup with two minutes left.
He got good service from halfback Lindsay Horrocks, who did not get ahead of himself with speed passes and instead distributed expertly.
No8 Bryn Hudson was a beast the home side could not tame, while flanker Tremaine Gilbert, left out of last year's playoffs, gave a committed performance - especially in snuffing out a possible first half try from McDougall when only Gilbert and second-five Craig Clare remembered to drift wide in case Horowhenua-Kapiti tried running it for once.
Clare and Harding were offline with some penalty attempts in the first half, which left the scoreboard closer than it should have been, but they were consistent in the second half on a day when consistency meant victory.
To have won the cup from distant fourth was a great farewell for retiring skipper Cole Baldwin.
"It's tough, they seem to get tougher," he said.
"With our backs against the wall for five weeks now, to come out the other side of it, is something we can be very proud of."
Their opposition playing territory rugby always means key players like the halves, wingers and fullback must be on song, or else the forwards have a lot of running to do to recover from mistakes, and Baldwin was satisfied the team's brain trust had delivered.
"They made some good decisions at good times. Very pleased and proud."
Coach Jason Caskey could sense Horowhenua-Kapiti breaking at halftime when he told the team to ease off on the return kicks and trust their ability with ball in hand.
That faith and scoreboard pressure made the difference, as Caskey has once again masterminded a championship run, this time having to do it the hard way.
"Anything's possible, it's just how you want to work," he said.
"It's been an up and down season. The lows are what make the highs even better.
"We defended really well at lineout time. It was 25 minutes before they won a lineout.
"At times we kicked a little bit too much. We wanted to make them work, defensively.
"When we did start to use the ball, we scored some tries."
Caskey praised the outside backs and especially the electric Crowley - one of the most involved wingers in the entire competition.
"I'd find it hard to go past him for man of the match."
Crowley had a direct hand in most of the dynamic moments of the opening exchanges, not hard when everybody else was dropping the ball as there were five unforced errors between both teams.
Wanganui were the first to hold the pill for three passes and got seven points from it, as Whale worked to Crowley coming it to put centre Kaveni Dabenaise clear and he held off the last defender to score.
Wanganui got the better of territory and tried to set Harding free out wide, but the Horowhenua Kapiti defenders were still crisp and made three turnovers, while threatening to break away as their chip kicks into open spaces took some nightmare bounces for the defenders.
But they were unable to control their lineouts, with Hart and Madams in constant motion to be ready to pressure the jumpers, so Wanganui kicked for territory and were content to wait for the home side to boot it back to them.
Harding's bomb and perfectly timed tackle on So'oialo earned a penalty for holding, but Clare was away with his kick, just as he was on his next attempt after the home side's forwards infringing from a lineout drive.
Hands in the ruck let Harding step up for a long 45m penalty, but he pushed it as well, with Wanganui always having to scramble to regather So'oialo's long dropouts.
The home side's scrum was still dangerous and pushed Wanganui's front row up in front of their posts, letting So'oialo's penalty close the gap, but the pressure was getting to the home team as Crowley hounded them at the kickoff and Wanganui got field position from the shallow clearence, receving a penalty for Clare to connect.
So'oialo had another kickable chance right near halftime, but the home side's trump card was inexplicably offline.
Crowley attacked straight from the resumption and got Wanganui a penalty for accidental offside for Clare to make it 13-3, and suddenly Horowhenua-Kapiti were being asked the question of whether they had the firepower for five-pointers.
So'oialo did close the gap when Dibben got trapped running the ball back from his 22m, while Harding was away with another 45m penalty from near the sideline.
Big reserve forward Louie Tovo tested the Wanganui defence with some powerful bursts, and although Horowhenua-Kapiti lost the ball in front of the posts, they again surged on Wanganui's scrum for another infringement to give So'oialo three more easy points after 56 minutes.
But then the home side finally cracked, dropping the kickoff, as Wanganui brought on their big Fijians in Samu Kubunavanua and Timoci Seruwalu, with his broken hand well wrapped.
Horowhenua-Kapiti were wary of Seruwalu, who put a hat trick on them in a preseason game, and Wanganui exploited it beautifully as Whale headed that way to attract defenders to Seruwalu, but then fired the long pass into a ranging Crowley's hands.
The veteran winger sliced the defence apart and swerved inside, being brought down at the tryline, and from the ruck, Horrocks fired another long ball to Harding, who put Kubunavanua in at the corner with his first touch.
Harding then raised the flags from the sideline for 20-9 and the home side's heads began to drop.
Horowhenua-Kapit kept kicking when they shouldn't or losing the ball when they spun it, as even a good So'oialo free kick right beside the corner flag was undone when Hudson's jarring tackle on the next phase forced the turnover.
Wanganui lost Kubunavanua after a hard collision with McDougall, but he had got his team the field position.
Reserve flanker Angus Middleton then charged down a So'oialo clearence and although Wanganui were penalised on the tryline, the jaded first five missed touch as Crowley had finger tip control to claim it.
Harding then ran to the gap and found Dabenaise with him, who shrugged out of one tackle and then put Crowley away down the tramlines for a most deserved try.
Horowhenua Kapiti gave themselves one last ray of hope when they ran back a Wanganui clearence and centre Ethan Pollock got free of Seruwalu to feed McDougall, who staved off Crowley and Dibben to score, with So'oialo unable to add the extras at 27-14.
But Wanganui were never going to falter now, as Whale put the ball into the home team's corners, with Crowley and Seruwalu making the tired defenders work hard.
Wanganui worked back to the centre of the field and Whale took the drop kick from near the 22m to ensured the Meads Cup was going back on the bus to its Cooks Gardens home.