All Blacks coach Ian Foster has a smile on his face, after watching his team rally from 14 points down to overcome Australia 23-20 in their Bledisloe Cup rematch at Dunedin.
Dominated over the opening 40 minutes and trailling 17-3 at halftime, an inexperienced New Zealand line-up clawed their way back into the contest, as key veterans came off the bench after the break, with first-five Richie Mo'unga slotting the winning penalty in the dying seconds.
Due to name his 33-man Rugby World Cup on Monday, Foster gave several fringe candidates a chance to stake their claims, but they initially struggled to rise to the next level.
Still, the All Blacks have extended their unbeaten run to 11 games, since their historic loss to Argentina at Christchurch last August, and their coach has declared himself more than satisfied with the result.
"I'm stoked with the win," he insisted. "Clearly, we were second best by some distance in that first half.
"They threw a lot at us, but I thought we came back just before halftime. To show that sort of composure under that scoreboard pressure and squeeze them and win in the last few minutes is a great lesson for this team.
"We've had three good wins this year and to come off a different type of win with that sort of result... that's what test matches are about and that will hold us in good stead for later on.
"We all know it wasn't perfect, but we'll take it."
With winger Shaun Stevenson and flanker Samipeni Finau debuting the starting XV, and midfielder Dallas McLeod coming off the bench, the gameday squad had a raw look to it.
Rookie prop Tamaiti Williams was awarded his first start in the front row, after a cameo against South Africa, Damian McKenzie was handed the No.10 jersey, Will Jordan switched to fullback for the first time at test level, while the midfield of Anton Lienert-Brown and Brydon Ennor was also untried.
Foster makes no apologies for the makeshift nature of his selection, with more important fixtures on the horizon.
"I know we made a lot of changes, more than we have for a long time," he said. "The overall objective was to win this test, but also to get this squad to the starting-line of the World Cup in a good space.
"If we didn't do this game the way we did it, the danger was we would have a number of players in the World Cup squad that hadn't played a serious test match for 8-9 weeks.
"We knew what we were doing. It was a bit nervous at halftime, but upside was we came through it and there were some big performances.
"I thought some of the new guys played better in the second half and that's a good sign too."
Captain Sam Cane takes some comfort from his team's ability to battle back into contention - and ultimately to victory - from their dire position at halftime.
"You've got to find ways to win and all test matches are different," he said. "You can talk about a lot of things, but sometimes, you actually have to go through things as a team and overcome them to get that deep, genuine belief you can do it.
"Hopefully, we don't find ourselves in that position again, but should we, there's a little bit of a calmness amongst the group that 'We've been here before, let's focus on what's important to fix and step forward from there'.
"I was really pleased with what the coaches and what we delivered at halftime, and the group was able to implement it and take it out there for the second 40."
Foster is coy about how much the performance and the result would influence choices around World Cup selection.
