LIKE all insurgents, the Melbourne Rebels knew they had to start well, move quickly and use the element of surprise against their better-equipped and experienced foes.
They also knew that their defence - their weak point all season - had to be desperate and resolute; that it was imperative to retain what they held should they be able to make unexpected gains in what most predicted would be a one-sided battle.
That is how it is if you are to have any hope of overthrowing an established power like the Queensland Reds, one of the sides that can be counted as genuine challengers for the Super Rugby title this season.
The Rebels did begin sharply, taking an early lead through a penalty and gaining enough possession to raise improbable hopes.
But as is so often the case in these unequal conflicts, those seeking to destabilise the established order found themselves running out of material and resources at just the moment they needed it most.
For all their ball in the first 15 minutes of this game - and thereafter, when they also had a lot of possession and mounted several threatening attacks - there was a grinding sense of inevitability about the eventual scoreline once the Reds flanker Scott Higgingbotham shrugged off three challenges to go over near the corner in the 18th minute.
The Reds had come south from the Sunshine State still smarting over a shock loss in Wellington six days earlier when a last-gasp penalty saw them undone at the death. One thing they were determined to do, as they made clear all week, was not to take their challengers lightly despite the ease with which they had beaten them when the two clubs met in March.
The 55-3 scoreline that day remains the Rebels' heaviest defeat and the most points they have conceded in a game.
This time, the loyal and vociferous Rebels crowd were assured, it would be different. The players themselves showed they meant business when they took the decision to dump star five-eighth Danny Cipriani and Richard Kingi for breaching team curfew rules after last week's loss to the Waratahs.
Cipriani's lack of defensive expertise was not missed but they certainly could have done with his kicking skills last night as stand-in Julian Huxley proved woefully inaccurate.
Cipriani might be a luxury item, but he does bring a certainty to set-piece situations and can normally be relied on to kick creatively and offensively in field play and accurately for penalties and conversions.
Still, the Rebels management and players had a point to make, and they made it. And in sport these days it is refreshing to see principle put ahead of pragmatism.
Nevertheless, some in the 16,593 strong crowd might have wondered whether their team could afford to have such lofty ideals when Cipriani's replacement, James Hilgendorf, was carried off and their marquee man was sitting in the stands looking on. Damned if you do, damned if you don't.