There are some things that just do not go together - oil and water, cats and dogs, Hone and Don. Another? The Highlanders and Hamilton.
Perhaps, but a closer look at the statistics show the Highlanders are not exactly entering a dead-end street when they run out at Waikato Stadium tonight.
Sure, they have not won there since 2003, but they have had only three losses in the city in the past eight years, the latest in 2008.
Of the team that day, only Jimmy Cowan, Jamie Mackintosh, Alando Soakai and Adam Thomson remain in the Highlanders set-up.
So talk of a Highlanders hoodoo in the river city may be a lot more myth than fact, which was confirmed by coach Jamie Joseph this week when he said the Highlanders were a new side, with new management, which did not have any past baggage.
But what is known is the Highlanders will have to do a lot more than turn up to gain a victory tonight, and do the double over the Chiefs this season.
The players need to be urgent and accurate around the breakdown, keep the ball in hand and when the chances come, take them.
Last week against the Blues, players broke the line but invariably ran out of support and the ball was not recycled quickly enough to keep the impetus going.
This is a big match for returning first five-eighth Lima Sopoaga. He has talent but a lot will ride on his young shoulders, especially with the weather expected to be damp - after all, it is Hamilton.
Sopoaga must be cool under pressure and play for territory in a game in which there are likely to be few points scored.
Outside him, Ben Smith gets another opportunity to stake his claim for an All Black jersey, and he will be up against a solid midfield in Dwayne Sweeney and Richard Kahui.
The Chiefs have been ordinary this season, nothing more said.
But such is the class of players in their team that a victory is never far away.
Coach Ian Foster talked this week of still making the playoffs and although that would rival Custer entering Little Bighorn in extreme optimism, he has players who can be dangerous.
Guys such as Sitiveni Sivivatu, Kahui and Liam Messam should not lack for motivation tonight if they are eyeing black jerseys.
But the Chiefs have been let down this year by those little things. They have just not been clicking, making elementary mistakes which used to be the domain of the boys in the blue, gold and maroon jersey.
Joseph said this week if anything, the travel back from South Africa could help a side and the Chiefs will be glad to be back home.
The only problem is Hamilton has, all of a sudden, not become a happy hunting ground for them.
Of the last nine games the Chiefs have played at Waikato Stadium, they have won only two.
What was a fortress in 2009 is fast becoming a leaky home two years later.
The match will be refereed by New Zealander Garrett Williamson. He replaces the much-maligned Chris Pollock, who was sent to South Africa after Steve Walsh was struck down by a calf injury.
HIGHLANDERS v CHIEFS
• Venue: Waikato Stadium, Hamilton
• Time: 7.35pm tonight
• Referee: Garratt Williamson (New Zealand)
• Odds: Chiefs $1.70, Highlanders $2.05
PREVIOUS MATCHES
• 2011: Dunedin, 23-13 Highlanders
• 2010: Mt Maunganui, 27-21 Chiefs
• 2009: Invercargill, 14-10 Chiefs
• 2008: Hamilton, 38-24 Chiefs
• 2007: Queenstown, 38-34 Chiefs
