Highlanders coach Aaron Mauger conceded the manner of his side's 28-27 win, courtesy of a Bryn Gatland dropped goal, over the Chiefs would have been a bittersweet moment for visiting coach Warren Gatland.
Gatland Junior had only been included in the match-day 23 after first choice first five-eighths Josh Ioane was forced out through a groin strain that will keep him out for two or three weeks.
Gatland came on at fullback late in the game, and after Damian McKenzie landed a dropped goal, it seemed it would be the Chiefs celebrating a win.
But in the next phase, the Highlanders worked their way into position for Gatland to land a dropped goal chance from 40m out, with less than a minute to play.
Mauger said: "Obviously he [Gatland Snr] would have been proud for his boy, but it has been tough for Bryn as he hasn't had a lot of footy this year.
"He's been the ultimate team man and when Josh [Ioane] went down Bryn was able to slot in because he had worked so hard and it was as if he had played every week."
But for the previous 79 minutes, the Highlanders benefited from the work put in by their much-maligned pack.
"It took all 80 minutes to get the job done and I'm proud of the way the boys stepped up. We asked a lot of this team through lockdown after assessing the first part of our season. One of them was around fronting up with our forward pack and they set the platform," he said.
That had been a special reward for forwards coach Clarke Dermody who achieved his 100th game of involvement with the side in his role.
"I think all of our backs should be buying our forwards a beer tonight because we've been putting it on those guys and they fronted tonight," he said.
Mauger was also pleased the side addressed their issue of working for longer periods in the game as that was where they had come unstuck earlier.
And while it was a work-on they had managed to contain a good Chiefs team with their defence and to work themselves into good positions.
Both teams would learn from the application of the laws during the game, and Mauger said the intent of speeding up the breakdown was apparent in the fact they had 17 turnovers, 12 of them at the breakdown.
"We're going to have to learn, and learn fast, we can't afford to give that much ball away," he said.
"If we had been able to hold the ball for longer we would have been able to put them under a bit more pressure."
Mauger said they also needed to be better in conceding yellow cards, especially in contesting high-ball. Both Vilimoni Koroi and Jona Nareki spent time in the sin-bin for offences in that area.