They walked away with bumps and bruises, but Opals coach Brendan Joyce says that's just what the Australian women's basketball team needed to become battle-hardened for a tilt at a sixth-straight Olympic medal.
The Opals booked their place at next year's Rio Games with a 2-0 sweep in their qualifying series against New Zealand, continuing their undefeated record at the Oceania Championships since 1974.
They breezed past the Tall Ferns by 20 points on Saturday in Melbourne, but had a tougher time against them in Tauranga on Monday.
Despite winning 80-63, their trans-Tasman rivals kept them in check for much of the game - especially the first quarter, which ended tied at 14-14.
But the experience of three-time Olympians Laura Hodges (22 points) and Suzy Batkovic (15 points) pulled them through, with London medallist Rachel Jarry (nine points) also lending a helping hand.
"Those three certainly made a major contribution," Joyce told AAP.
"It was an extremely physical game.
"New Zealand played really well, played tough, mixed up their defence, disrupted us and threw us challenges.
"But we kept great composure, considering we've got quite a few young players playing in their first Oceania series.
"It's good preparation for the future. Not everything's going to run according to plan and win by big margins."
The Opals clinched the series without the likes of superstars Liz Cambage, Lauren Jackson and Penny Taylor, who are all expected to be back in the squad for Rio.
Their unavailability due to fitness forced Joyce to bring in less experienced talent for the Oceania championships and warm-up tour of Europe.
But he said that was always going to be part of the plan, given a majority of the squad that won bronze at the 2012 London Games may not have seen out another Olympics.
"It was going to be a tough job for me because you look into the crystal ball and you go from London to Rio, there are 10 or so girls at 31, 32 or 33 years of age going to the Olympics," he said.
"No way (we could have that).
"What we've done is develop players in their early teens but also picked out players in their early 20s that have probably been overlooked - like Nat Burton, Steph Talbot, Tessa Lavey - with an outlook a bit like the AFL; looking at everybody, not just the young kids but mature-aged rookies.
"We felt we needed to expedite the development of those players so we could try and get to the point where we've got experienced players at the Olympics.
"The goal is to create a situation where we can win gold, not just once but all the time."
The Opals have won a medal at every Olympics since Atlanta in 1996, including three silver and two bronze.
They rank second in the world, behind only the US, who've taken out gold at each Games since 1984 bar one in 1992.
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