The First Nations Pasifika XV has several motivations to deliver a solid performance next week when they face the British & Irish Lions next week - and one of the biggest for several players is to right the wrongs of several big losses earlier on in the tour.
Nearly all of the squad have already played at least one match against the Lions on tour, with the visitors defeating all provincial sides, and in the case of the Reds, Western Force and the AUNZ Invitational XV, put in demolishing performances.
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It is one of the major factors that is driving the team as they commence preparations on the park - a determination to put in a better performance, shut down the Lions' threats and compete.
With Toutai Kefu having already faced the Lions with AUNZ, the head coach is quickly translating those lessons learned to the park in Melbourne, with Glen Ella and an experienced coaching team on hand.
"I think they [the players] were a little bit disappointed on the way that they performed but they're really keen to make up for that now," said Ella to reporters on Tuesday.
"We've got a few other guys who have played against the Lions so far, so they've given us that information so we need just to put it on the park now."
"Everyone wants to play the Lions and the majority of the groups have already had a shot in some capacity to play against them for their clubs, you learn a lot from those experiences," Muirhead added.
"We go into this game with the learnings we've taken. We're just looking to combine well on Tuesday night."
With the chance for a shot at redemption, both Ella and Muirhead admitted that they want the team concept to also work well, serving as a valuable chance for discussion and cultural representation.
"You obviously play against these guys week in, week out through Super Rugby and you get a good relationship with those guys," Muirhead added.
"It's nice to come together for the week and talk about what's important for us in terms of culture.
"We've got a good group here and we've got a nice big forward back and some silky outside backs, so I'm hoping we can use the next couple of days to gel and get that cohesion and hopefully put on a good performance on Tuesday.
"You take a lot of learnings out of these sort of things. You speak about what's important. We had a great welcome to country yesterday and the boys have done a couple of welcomes and acknowledgments but not know the meaning behind it.
"I think that's a big factor in this week in learning traditions and cultures that we have and us as First Nations guys can learn a little bit about the island culture as well."
"I think it's all the group just respecting each other's cultures across the ocean to a big ocean like Australia, a big country...It's fantastic," Ella said.
"It's a once in a lifetime for these guys and probably they won't play against the Lions again. But we want this concept to keep on going and that's going to matter just depending on how we perform on Tuesday night.
"We can put a good show on and hopefully beat the Lions so we can keep this process going every 12 years."
Making the First Nations Pasifika concept work long term has been something discussed by multiple players and coaches, and it is something that Australian rugby has been crying out for over the last few years.
While its future is far from guaranteed and a strong performance on Tuesday would go a long way to achieving that, both Ella and Muirhead acknowledge that such a team existing provides aspiration for First Nations and Pasifika players.
"There's always room for improvement [regarding indigenous representation]," said Ella.
"I think that there's a lot of good Aboriginal people out there that play, men and women, who can play the game no problem at all.
"It's just a matter of them getting some sort of pathway to those opportunities, and the more Indigenous kids we get into the system, the better, from my perspective."
"There's obviously a lot of support and guidance we need with taking people out into their communities and that support to make them feel comfortable," Muirhead echoed.
"Unfortunately rugby at the moment doesn't have those resources to be able to give all these pathways that Glenn spoke about, and I couldn't agree more.
"The more pathways that we can have for our young Indigenous men and women to come into our game, the more it is going to benefit us. You see the best players in all the codes. They're more likely to be in the First Nations.
"I think the more you get us playing in this great game you're going to have some sort of spectacle to watch. Our guys are just so athletic it's not funny."
While that discourse will play out long after the final whistle blows on Tuesday, the side now focuses its efforts on turning up against the Lions, with Ella believing that if the side can nail the fundamentals, they will already be in a position to produce a better performance.
"There's always a chance of an upset. We're not going there to play tiddlywinks. We'll be doing our best," said Ella.
"For our first session, it was really good. We've got some good coaches. Kev is an old mate of mine from the Wallaby days and he's really passionate about this game.
"We're really excited about it and we really want to make sure we put on a really good performance on the night.
"We don't want to overload the guys. We did some really basic stuff.
"In rugby, the basic stuff normally wins. It was a good session."
