But that fight drained out of the Stags in the final 20 minutes of its 47-10 loss to Tasman in Nelson yesterday afternoon.
The Mako ran in four late tries to record a comfortable 47-10 win.
Up until that point the game was still in the balance.
But the weight of possession eventually overwhelmed the visitors.
The Stags did not use the wind very well in the second half, either.
Stags captain Tony Lamborn picked up on that point in the post-match interview with the Sky commentary team.
"With the score only being 7-3 at halftime I thought we were in with a sniff here," he said.
"We wanted to plug the corner but maybe we weren’t executing our kicks enough."
The Stags had underlined their tenacity every single outing this season and turned in a familiar opening 40 minutes.
They can defend, these players, and rolled their sleeves up again for another busy shift without the ball.
Tasman had 64% of possession and 68% of the territory in the first spell.
But all the home team had to show for it was a try to powerful No 8 Taina Fox-Matamua and a conversion to Mitch Hunt after 20 minutes.
The Mako had plenty more opportunities to add to the score. Prop Ryan Coxon got into wide open space, threw a dummy and got a side step in.
That break really should have led to second try but a dud pass out wide gave Southland the opportunity to smother the creative spark.
Having hung on by a thread, a finger nail and the skin of their teeth, the Stags drilled a penalty in the last act of the half to go into the break trailing by 4.
Tasman fullback David Havili was at his slippery best early in the second spell. Centre Fetuli Paea had made a big break in the midfield and Havili finished.
He bumped off a would-be tackler, stepped another and used his pass to go around the cover and score.
Southland replied almost immediately. Replacement Scott Eade made a burst and Lamborn punched through close to the ruck to score.
Eade undid some of his good work with a poor defensive read a little later. He tried to make a tackle on the dummy runner which created space for winger Leicester Fainga’anuku.
Fainga’anuku was stopped short by the cover but the ball was recycled quickly for Paea to score.
Tasman was more accurate in the second half and the Stags had to do a whole lot more defending.
They basically did a double shift on defence and that took a toll.
Fainga’anuku capitalised by running around some tired bodies and Tasman streaked away to win by more than 30.
Tasman played in the brown and white hoops of Golden Bay-Motueka to mark the 100th anniversary of the Golden Bay-Motueka Rugby Union.