And there was plenty of that at halftime in Invercargill on Friday night.
Southland trailed Manawatū 22-0.
What the home team needed was some home truths.
Co-coach James Wilson said they kept the advice constructive.
"Obviously, there was some looking in each other’s eyes and some hard chats," Wilson said.
"But it was very solution-based.
"We just talked a bit about the care and how we wanted to play the game. Care for each other, care for the jersey, so it sort of fired the boys up a bit."
Sure did.
The Stags scored 29 unanswered points in the second half to win the match by seven points.
It was quite a turnaround.
Wilson is hopeful his side will "take a good snapshot of that last 30 minutes" and take it into tonight’s NPC game against Bay of Plenty in Rotorua.
"They are a tough side. They have some great players leading them around the field and they’ve got very good defensive lines.
"We’ll have to be on from an attack point of view and on around our kicking game.
"It’s a big part of their game, so defensively the back field needs to be covered really well.
"And some good decisions will need to be made back there around how we bring the ball back and what we do with it."
Speedster Michael Manson has been named at fullback and he will be looking to exploit his pace.
Eighteen-year-old first five Mika Muliaina has been rewarded for a strong showing against Manawatū with his first start for the Stags.
Second five Faletoi Peni is one of the hardest-running midfielders in the competition, so the Stags have firepower.
But Wilson has urged his side to be patient.
"We’re just going to have to be patient. Ideally, I want to see us hold on to the ball a lot more than we did in that first half last week.
"So, like I said, a snapshot of the last 30 minutes last week to this week would be really good."
