That the Blues claimed victory against the Rebels today isn't a surprise but the way they did it was.
They arrived prepared to graft and grind, to front a good side physically and slug it out for 80 minutes. But it only became that sort of game in the last 15 minutes when a few loose moments cost the Blues a big lead and left them having to be more careful than they would have liked in their 36-30 win.
It left them on edge for the last 10 minutes as the Rebels were only six points behind and in possession of one trick - a driving maul that was a background threat.
It felt wrong that the Rebels were still in it that late in the game. They'd barely played any rugby and had ridden their luck and the wayward kicking of Ihaia West to be where they were. Their lineout driving game had been a massive factor, too, but that's all they had and shouldn't have been enough to have made things as close as they ended up being.
Up until that last quarter, there hadn't been any need for the Blues to do much, if any, grafting or grinding. They just had to keep the ball, run straight and be patient. That was enough to flummox the Rebels, enough to make it one of those rare evenings when the Blues could, with some of the angst and pressure lifted early, play without inhibition.
They found some flow and rhythm and, perhaps given his time again, coach Tana Umaga may not have emptied the bench as early as he did. The changes, as so often happens, left the Blues out of sorts and it was as they tried to reorganise that the Rebels were able to claw their way back in.
Still, the fact they had to fight from as far back as they did told a story in itself.
It's a fairly preposterous state of affairs when the lowest ranked New Zealand team are able to deal to the top Australian side - look them in the eye and fear nothing.
What should really concern Sanzar, and more specifically the Australian Rugby Union, is the ease with which the Blues were able to conjure tries. They played well enough, were moderately slick and creative, but nothing special - nothing that made everyone gasp and proclaim their rugby genius and yet the tries kept coming.
Simple stuff brought huge gains for the Blues and even they might have been surprised how easily they were able to breach the Rebels.
They must have wondered why they were able to score a couple of times directly off first-phase possession - just pass, catch, run straight and over in the corner.
They must have felt that every time they entered the Rebels' 22 they were going to come away with points, largely because that's what happened. If West had kicked his goals and the coaches had resisted the urge to make so many replacements as early as they did, the Blues could have cruised to 50 and jumped on the plane to South Africa this morning with genuine confidence about how things might go in the Republic.
Blues 36 (J. Parsons, J. Kaino, C. Faumuina. I. West, T. Li, L. Visinia tries; I. West 2 cons; P. Francis cons)
Rebels 30 (R. Hodge, J. Reid, C. Faingaa, S. Naivalu tries; J. Debreczeni 2 cons, 2 pens).
Halftime: 24-18.
