Agony, heartache, depression, call it whatever. Just add it to the seemingly countless near misses for the the men in blue and gold.
Otago went close and, at times, it looked as though the 52-year drought was going to end, but Wellington did just enough to hold on to the Ranfurly Shield in Wellington last night.
The visiting side was never behind for 70 minutes of the game, and played composed rugby throughout.
But sadly for Otago supporters it was not enough.
A burst of speed from winger Hosea Gear - why is he not in South Africa ? - got Wellington home in an match where Otago was much the better for long periods of play.
Otago competed well in the breakdown, tackled like demons, and disrupted much of Wellington's play.
But it was not enough and another chapter was written in the Otago book of Ranfurly Shield near-misses which is starting to resemble War and Peace in length.
Wellington was poor in many phases of play and got home through some fine individual play.
Otago was left to rue a couple of crucial chances which went begging.
Otago first five-eighth Chirs Noakes missed a couple of penalties in the second half while a break by centre Brett Mather early in the second half could not be capitalised.
Wellington appeared to be chasing the game the entire match but caught up when it mattered.
It took Wellington until 23 minutes into the second half to get on the try ledger.
Noakes was isolated in the tackle, Wellington turned the ball over and second five-eight Shaun Treeby burst away.
He passed to supporting replacement loose forward Daniel Ramsay who went in under the posts.
Five minutes later, Wellington went ahead when Gear showed his class, bursting through a hole in the Otago defence.
It then added some security when replacement first five-eighth Fa'atonu Fili knocked over a dropped goal with seven minutes left, putting side nine points ahead.
Otgao replied right at the end with a nice try to flanker Adam Thomson in the corner, but as Noakes was lining up the kick the fulltime hooter went and the brave challenge had ended.
It would be hard to signal any Otago player out as they all played well, but Mather ran hard, while captain Alando Soakai ran himself to standstill.
Thomson got round the paddock and the front row performed well in the scrums.
Gear was the best for Wellington but the home side will have to improve markedly if it wants to hold on to the shield.
The first 20 minutes of the match had both sides testing each other out.
Otago had a great opening few minutes and Noakes put the visiting side ahead with less than two minutes gone, knocking over a straightforward penalty from in front.
Wellington replied with Dan Kirkpatrick penalty and then almost scored in the corner, but a great diving tackle from halfback Sean Romans pushed Wellington fullback Buxton Popoalii into touch as split second before he put the ball down.
Otago then hit back and grabbed the first try.
No 8 Steven Setephano made a barging run and when the ball went wide winger Karne Hesketh burst through three tackles, and was lowered just short of the line.
His in-pass was kicked ahead and Noakes was on hand to dive on the ball a second before it went dead.
Otago went eight points clear when Noakes slotted another penalty, after 24 minutes and he missed a handy one six minutes later.
Kirkpatrick did not have his kicking boots on and he missed a penalty kick he could have thrown over with five minutes left in the first half.
Wellington 23 (Daniel Ramsay, Hosea Gear tries, Fa'atonu Fili 2 conversions, dropped goal, Daniel Kirkpatrick 2 penalty goals), Otago 19 (Chris Noakes, Adam Thomson tries, Noakes 3 penalty goals) Half-time: 11-3 Otago.
Crowd: 10,628.
