The young Taihape team have been the great improvers in Premier season 2013 but with that improvement comes the burden of heightened expectations.
And simply put, the visitors did not look like a semifinal-bound team at Dallison Park on Saturday as a string of dropped ball, lack of territory and missed opportunities was compounded by conceding six tries in a disappointing 38-13 loss to Border.
The home side, while by no means perfect, showed August is very much on their minds as they experimented with positional switches like short lineouts thrown in by No8 Cole Baldwin, while both speedster wingers Aaron Vadiga and Sailosi Naoiso injected themselves into the backline to feed each other.
After a scrappy first half where neither team could put together much fluidity, despite two Border tries, the patterns started to click for the Waverley side through the middle 20 minutes of the second stanza as Vadiga, first-five Mark Davis and representative rugby's odd-man-out Fraser Middleton took a choke hold on the game, putting on four sparkling tries.
Taihape showed what might have been inside the final 10 minutes when they knuckled down to put on two consolation five-pointers, with flanker Marcus Tottman thoroughly deserving the first after giving it everything for little reward.
Dropped ball and lost possession at the breakdown is the bane of any coach's existence, which Taihape's Kerry Whale acknowledged.
"It won't put any fear up anyone, that's for sure," he said.
Key losses also create some nervous moments given Taihape are playing a game down following the postponement of last weekend's Kaierau match.
Fortunately, neither Kaierau nor fifth-placed Marton were able to win on Saturday either, although Marton did snare a bonus point at the Ratana Pa.
"That will pan out, if it's got to be played then we'll play it," said Whale of the Kaierau fixture.
Border coach Peter Richardson was pleased they had increased their try-scoring quota, although neither team can be happy with their high error rate.
"[Taihape] sort of became their own worst enemy."
Regarding different players taking on different roles, it was all about little things to get the strike men where they needed to be, Richardson said.
"The number on your back doesn't mean status quo."
He thought Middleton was outstanding while Vadiga showed the "whole package", and Davis's move back to Taranaki means Wanganui's Heartland team will miss the first-five.
Naoiso looked dangerous early on and kept Taihape fullback Luke Whale busy, finally getting on the outside after a smart backline spread to dive over.
Whale replied with a good penalty kick 10 minutes later, before Border halfback Lindsay Horrocks made up for a nervous start by making a sneak blindside dash and sending flanker Liam Richardson across.
Whale was away with a couple of difficult penalty chances, with Taihape not getting into try-scoring range.
Vadiga opened up Border's second half scoring blitz by diving across from a quick tap, then Naoiso showed great strength to get his pass away through two tacklers for Middleton's first try.
Davis sold everyone a dummy to glide through and send his fullback over for a double, then Border couldn't decide who should get the next try as a Vadiga burst saw both Middleton then Horrocks selflessly pass with the line open before lock Sam Madams happily took the spoils.
Taihape brought some respectability back to the scoreboard as Tottman crashed over out wide, then cut through for his bounce pass to find reserve Timi Tepaa on fulltime.
Waverley Harvesting Border 38 (Fraser Middleton 2, Sailosi Naoiso, Liam Richardson, Aaron Vadiga, Sam Madams tries, Mark Davis 4 con) bt Taihape 13 (Marcus Tottman, Timi Tepaa tries, Luke Whale pen). HT: 12-3.