Leicester Tigers' England contingent overcame "mental fatigue" to help the club return from Exeter Chiefs with a crucial 12-9 victory.
Director of rugby Richard Cockerill had seven internationals back after England's Grand Slam hopes had come crashing down in Wales just seven days earlier.
And, after a series of one-to-one chats during the week, the likes of Ben Youngs, Geoff Parling, Dan Cole and the rest all convinced Cockerill they were in the right frame of mind to take the field against the Chiefs.
They were part of a tremendously gutsy Tigers performance, which helped inflict Exeter's only second home defeat of the Aviva Premiership campaign.
Toby Flood's four penalties earned the visitors a hard-fought win at a sold-out Sandy Park.
The win was good enough to put Tigers into one of those coveted top-two spots for a home semi-final after Saracens beat Harlequins yesterday.
"The mental fatigue of coming back from such a long spell of high-intensity rugby on and off the field was hard for the England internationals," said Cockerill.
"But from my own experience, after a bad international fixture, the best thing to do is to come and play for your team. That is your bread and butter.
"I spoke to all of the lads in the week and they all wanted to play, which was good because we needed them.
"Exeter are a side that you have to treat with respect because they don't lose very often down here. If you leave your best players out, you will lose."
Flood and Exeter's fly-half Gareth Steenson swapped three penalties apiece in the first half before Flood landed the killer blow with 11 minutes left.
There was still chance for Steenson to grab a draw with the last kick of the game but his 40-metre penalty fell just short of the crossbar.
"A 12-12 draw would probably have been a fair result because there was little in it," admitted Cockerill. "This is a tough place to come and we have not had the majority of our squad to work with for the past eight weeks.
"We got the lads back from international duty and then had to integrate them and get them playing well at a very tough place.
"I am delighted with the win and our attitude was great. We could have been better at times and we had a bit of luck. We will take the points and move on.
"Every point is massive for us now. We play the sides around us in the next few weeks with Wasps and Northampton and we know just how hard it is going to be to get into the top two."
