Taranaki were made to battle before repelling Hawke's Bay 22-6 to retain the Ranfurly Shield and maintain their winning start to the national provincial rugby championship.
Two tries in the last 13 minutes, to second five-eighth Jayden Hayward and hard-working flanker Scott Waldrom, ensured the Log o' Wood remained in New Plymouth.
The contest on Friday night was a big turnaround from Taranaki's previous defence seven days ago, when more than a point a minute was scored before the home side ran out 49-40 winners.
This time, a scoreless deadlock wasn't broken until early in the second half, when Taranaki forced a turnover deep in opposition territory and then worked the ball to fullback Kurt Baker to dot down in the corner.
Hawke's Bay replied with two penalties to No.10 Daniel Waenga to go 6-5 ahead.
But replacement Taranaki first five Jack Cameron nudged his side back in front, before Hayward and Waldrom's late tries sealed the province's third victory of the season.
Defeat for Hawke's Bay leaves them with just one win from four matches.
Earlier, the Magpies had failed to take advantage of having the wind at their backs in the opening spell.
They had the majority of the territory, but Taranaki showed good resilience to restrict them to just two scoring opportunities in the spell.
Both fell to Waenga, who couldn't convert two penalty attempts in the tricky conditions.
NZN