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Ross Tucker has a PhD in Exercise Physiology from the UCT Faculty of Health Sciences and is currently a member of Paul Treu's SA Sevens management team., was the author of Science of Sport. He is an accomplished sports scientist and lives in South Africa. 

He examined the demands of elite rugby players in their toughest test, Super 14 competition., The results showed the physiological demands of the game increase as the duration of the increases. There is a direct correlation between the effort put forth in the final minutes of a game. This goes to show the level of urgency for an athlete in the final quarter. 

At Cal, Steve Mariucci instilled the mind set, "The Fourth Quarter is Ours". This mindset permeated through the culture of Cal football players. We couldn't wait to to get the fourth quarter because after all, it was ours. This mindset is smart to cultivate because mentally tough teams that continue to play through the last minutes will ultimately have more success. 

I have found a similar mindset in CrossFit workouts, taking the workout to the last second and realizing that a 20 minute AMRAP means just that...20 minutes as many rounds as possible and even some extra reps. 

"The Vodacom Super 14 competition puts elite rugby players through one of the toughest tests in the game – with up to 15 maximum efforts over 16 weeks, often across 10 time-zones against teams wishing to displace the Bulls as the reigning Super Rugby champions."

"But exactly what is the physiological challenge faced by players in any given match?"

"...Finally, the physiological load is actually greater in the second half of matches. Players run further in the second half, with more accelerations and short sprints, and there are twice as many impacts in the second half. More time is also spent doing high-intensity running and less time walking in the second half of matches, especially for forwards, which says that play is more continuous in the second half. It’s perhaps not surprising then that scorelines often remain tight for 50 minutes before opening up – the last 30 minutes is where the physiology begins to tell!.."

Physiological Demands of Rugby