Jagging a well-earned win is one thing but winning when you absolutely must is something else altogether.
And that’s exactly what a backs-to-the-wall Queensland Reds outfit did in Sydney last weekend to keep their 2026 Super W campaign alive.
Not only did the Reds simply have to win to stay in the championship hunt, they had to do so away from home and in miserably wet conditions.
And if that wasn’t challenge enough, they also had to trump a team they’d never beaten in 13 attempts.
Reds skipper and long-time Bond Bull Shark, Jemma Bemrose, said it was a special afternoon.
"It was so, so good," she said. "A surreal feeling really. We were kind of looking at each other afterwards and saying 'did we really just do that?'"
"But it also didn't come as a surprise because we'd had a great preparation in the week before.
"We knew the 'Tahs were coming in off a loss the week before, so we went in with a lot of belief that we could get the job done."
Bemrose said the nature of the Super W season meant the Reds could stay in touch even if the wins weren't necessarily coming.
"We'd definitely been a bit inconsistent earlier on in the season," she said.
"Part and parcel of having a newer group trying to gel."
"And we'd had a couple of tight losses before this game, but it's only a five team, four round competition so it doesn't mean you have the luxury of time to adjust things, but it also means we weren't ever too far off being in the hunt in the end."
Bemrose was her usual inexhaustible self throughout the gritty 26-19 triumph, but she wasn’t the only Reds-signed Bull Shark to rise to the moment - Lucy Thorpe, Eva Karpani and Zoe Hanna all crossed for crucial first half tries, Ava Wereta was strong at inside centre, and Evie Sampson enjoyed some important late minutes when NSW were throwing everything at a desperate Reds’ defence.
That Queensland was able to defend a lead in bitterly cold and seriously wet conditions is something Bemrose said will give the group tremendous confidence going forward.
"We'd done a lot right in losses to the Force and the Brumbies in earlier games, so to be able to put up a wall and defend under pressure and hold off on the mistakes in those conditions was huge for us."
She also said that approaching the game against a hoodoo opponent with a little more 'devil may care' had worked wonders.
"We really enjoyed playing 'on top' up tempo rugby," she said.
"We play best when we are fearless and show less hesitation."
Queensland will now enjoy a week off before travelling to Fiji to play the ladder-topping Fijian Drua at Churchill Park, Lautoka, in the first of two Super W semi-finals.