Ah, preseason rep rugby, the domain of the four-quarter match and the musical chairs from a reserves bench with about 11-12 players, all looking to get on the field for a 10-15 minute cameo in front of the big bosses.
Around the country today the Mitre 10 Cup teams are having their last hit outs before business time arrives next weekend.
It is the selectors final chance to see if any bolters from extended squads of around 41 is worth getting a place in the initial 22 who will go for the Cup or Premiership.
Among them are more than just a couple of young men with Whanganui connections.
Two of the best cases are well documented - as we will see the graduation of 22-year-old Poasa Waqanibau into the defending champion Canterbury team, wearing jersey No24 for the clash with Wellington at Christchurch's Rugby Park.
Back across the Cook Strait and up the road in Inglewood, 19-year-old Stephen Perofeta ran the cutter for Taranaki against Waikato yesterday, facing them a week after he and Waqanibau's former team mates in Steelform Wanganui gave their all against the Mooloos in the Ranfurly Shield challenge.
Both young men were also key figures in the drive to the 2015 Meads Cup title last year - Wanganui's fifth championship since the Heartland competition began 10 years ago.
In announcing his Canterbury call up, Canterbury did give begrudging mention to Waqanibau's success as a first-class player at amateur level with Wanganui, but made very sure to emphasise the key feature of his elevation was his recent months spent in their academy system.
"Our other new outside back, Poasa Waqanibau, also comes out of the Academy and promises some real firepower out wide.
"Poasa was part of the Fijian Under 20 side at the 2014 Junior World Championship, and the Fijian Warriors team at the 2015 Pacific Nations Cup."
Perhaps it would have been fair to add how Waqanibau came to these shores through arrangement with the Border rugby club in Waverley, and was further developed in the Heartland competition by head coach Jason Caskey and backs coach Jason Hamlin.
The payoff for this, which brought national fame, was Waqanibau's three dynamic offloads during the 105m try scored by the backs in their 28-11 victory over South Canterbury in the Meads Cup final in Timaru - later voted by the country as the 'Try of the Year' at the Steinlager Awards.
Getting attention both in Timaru and the week before in Ashburton in the semifinal victory over Mid Canterbury, was what punched Waqanibau's ticket to head to Christchurch.
Perofeta is a similar story - given he could not just 'up and leave' for an eager Mitre 10 Cup union before playing Heartland for Caskey because there was the small matter of completing his schooling at Wanganui Collegiate.
With the greatest of respect to the Clifton club, which feeds the Taranaki academy system, Perofeta hardly had time to get his feet under him before he was off with Scott Robertson's 'Baby Blacks' to chase the Under 20's World Championship.
While the Port Taranaki Bull's will no doubt benefit from how Perofeta has grown in the past six months, one could argue it was only an extension of his skills which were already fostered and blossomed in the competitive Heartland environment, and earning selection for the NZ Heartland team which took on the Australian Barbarians afterwards.
Perofeta hasn't forgotten - his All Blacks.com profile lists Cooks Gardens as his favourite ground to play.
I remember talking with Kaierau mainstay Darren Munro last year, who felt that while Perofeta could do as well as he ultimately did, it still would not have hurt the teenager to have just one more season in his home town.
Not entirely unselfish of Munro as the young prodigy no doubt would have played for Kaierau.
However, Caskey has noted the same concern as well - the desire of Wanganui teenagers at the first chance they get to 'up roots' and head to the bigger provinces that pay - joining academy groups as quickly as possible lest opportunity pass them by.
And how many of these young men, whose careers are now being decided by perhaps one administrator with a clipboard, get swallowed up and spit out before they can reach full potential?
Afterall, they are just one face surrounded by 40-50 identical young men with the same drive to get one of those rare seats at the main table.
Heartland is less picky - Caskey and his fellow coaches at this level will make do with what they've got.
It is beholden of them to spot a player with just a little shine and then polish them up as hard as they can in the hope a diamond in the rough will be revealed.
At the same time, these young players go through the same full schedule found at top level - two trainings a week plus expectation they will do gym work or extra cardio sessions, along with keeping to strict timetables where they will hop on the bus and plane to travel the depth and breadth of the country.
It requires self discipline and focus. It's professional without the big pay check.
And as Caskey said to me on Thursday night, it is a far better route for some players to take for 1-2 seasons - playing in a national competition where there is pressure and the drive for championships, rather than Development XV games where players are swapped in-and-out on management's whim during contests where there is really nothing on the line.
The cream - like Perofeta and Waqanibau - can still rise to the top that way, but how many next-tier youngsters never get the opportunity to showcase themselves on a big stage because they simply can't perform in a sterile environment?
Caskey told me there has actually been a push back in recent years where top Mitre 10 Cup coaches, privately wishing to spurn certain management types justifying their salaries with academy's, would rather send their young players out to Heartland unions.
That way they can play in a genuine national competition and experience that big game pressure, just at a lower level.
And you can still get spotted by the big city teams that way.
I could literally feel the Taranaki rugby management sitting forward in their seats when Wanganui fullback Te Rangatira Waitokia snatched the intercept and ran 80m to score in Hawera a fortnight ago.
But at least Caskey and Hamlin can nurture Waitokia for these next three months over 8-10 games before some big city scouts come calling.