The Brave Blossoms learned Saturday what countless other international sides have discovered over the years — namely you cannot write a New Zealand side off till the fat lady truly sings.
A try by Dan Pryor three minutes from time saw the Maori All Blacks beat a Japan XV 20-18 at Prince Chichibu Memorial Rugby Ground in a superb exhibition of rugby that judging by tweets won plaudits the world over.
They say a week is a long time in politics. The Brave Blossoms proved it is a long time in sport too as they rebounded from a 61-21 loss last week to almost beat a side that would rank around seventh in the world it played test-match rugby.
To put that in perspective, Eddie Jones' side almost did what the likes of the British and Irish Lions, England and Ireland haven't done in recent years.
On a cold wet day in the nation's capital the Maori may have extended their unbeaten streak to 18 games, but Jones' team proved that talk of it reaching the quarterfinals at next year's Rugby World Cup is not as unrealistic as some had scoffed at.
"We all love the game but sometimes the game doesn't love you and it didn't love us today," rued Jones. "It's disappointing to lose but in terms of performance I thought we were outstanding. There's a lot of confidence heading into the World Cup."
Defense coach Leigh Jones had plenty to do following last week's defeat in Kobe, and mainly the hard work seemed to have paid off, with just two soft tries handed away in the first half.
More importantly the attacking flair and self-belief seemed to have returned to the Japan side as it showed resilience and determination to bounce back from a 15-0 deficit.
"We improved the balance of our attack and made adjustments to the shape," Eddie Jones said. "We were also much more courageous about taking space on the outside."
In the end it wasn't quite enough though.
"We couldn't finish them off and the result reflects that," Jones said. "The wonderful talent New Zealand has is the envy of every country in the world. But we will learn to close out those games."
Japan dominated the opening stages from the moment Kotaro Matsushima made a great break straight from the kickoff.
But the Brave Blossoms were unable to turn possession and territory into points, despite the Maori being penalized on a number of occasions, culminating in Tom Franklin being sent to the sin bin as early as the sixth minute.
Two rolling mauls were stopped just short of the line, Ayumu Goromaru missed a penalty that he would normally have banged over with ease and Keita Inagaki's "try" in the 12th minute was called back by the TV match official for obstruction.
The Maori had barely touched the ball, but they don't need much possession to show off their skill and athleticism and two poor kick chases by the hosts was all it took for them to open the scoring.
Codie Taylor showed great pace for a hooker after Japan had kicked the ball away in the 16th minute and Nehe Milner-Skudder added a second six minutes later from another missed tackle as the Maori scored twice from their first two chances.
Ihaia West converted the first try and then added a penalty in the 31st minute to make it 15-0.
Having been taught its lesson, Japan then held onto the ball and Akihito Yamada rounded off a good spell just before halftime to go over for Japan's first try as the teams went into the break with 10 points separating them.