The Crusaders' 21-7 victory over the Blues in Saturday's Super Rugby Final was founded on set-piece dominance, particularly at lineout time.
Scott Robertson's southerners - most notably Sam Whitelock and Cullen Grace - wreaked havoc on the Blues feeds, stealing 10 of their 19 throws in wet conditions at Eden Park - including one at their own five-metre line during the first half, as their opponents threatened to get back into the contest.
Captain Scott Barrett reveals they identified the hosts' weakness in that aspect of the game and meticulously worked on a blueprint to spoil the Blues feeds throughout the week, which they then executed to perfection to clinch their 13th Super Rugby crown.
"Finals footy is a game about pressure," Barrett said afterwards. "That's something we talked about this week.
"If we could pressure their set-piece… their scrum was dominant at times throughout the season, but if we could muscle up there and at [the] lineout, we saw a few opportunities there.
"If we could get up in the air with the greasy ball, we could accumulate some pressure."
Blues coach Leon MacDonald admits, at times, the Crusaders seemed to have a copy of their playbook, such was their uncanny ability to read and react at the lineout, which Barrett puts down to some old-fashioned "extras" with his fellow forwards and coaching staff.
"We had a clear plan," insisted Barrett. "We put a lot of time into it, meeting on a day off, throwing out ideas with [lock] Quinten Strange and [forwards coach] Jason Ryan behind the scenes.
"We put a lot of work into it and got the reward tonight, which was pleasing."
While coach Robertson won't go as far as ranking the title win above his first at Johannesburg's Ellis Park in 2016, he acknowledges the magnitude of his team's accomplishment in prevailing at Eden Park, which has chewed up plenty of other teams during the Blues' unbeaten home season.
"It is special winning in the Garden," he said. "We talked about it.
"It's really hard for any team to win here - any team playing the All Blacks or the Blues.
"We had to go to a high level, if we wanted to do it and we did that."
The Blues were forced into a mountain of defending against the Crusaders, who may well have run up the score, without some gallant tryline tackling, says Robertson.
"We kicked off, had the wind and put them on their back fence for long periods of time," he noted. "The only frustrating thing is, we probably got held up over the lines about four times - they were tough.
"Their defence was frustrating for us. It could easily have been 15-20 points, but they stayed in it."
Ultimately, there was only ever really one team in the contest, as the Crusaders put on a clinic in finals rugby. Having been there and done that 12 times previously, that big-game experience shone through when it really mattered.
"I'm extremely proud," added Robertson. "Through the week, we dug pretty deep into what it takes to win a championship, and reflected on a lot of other teams that had done it and why.
"That connected us into how hard it was going to be, and there were a lot of messages from old players, coaches and captains - that reflected probably that first 50 minutes."
