Rugby: No band-aid to fix Taniwha

Auckland's Lolagi Visinia competes for the ball with Northland winger Jone Macilai.

A year's supply of Elastoplast tape will not be enough to cover up the wounds inflicted upon Northland from their harrowing 64-21 loss to Auckland at Eden Park.

Officially without a win for 368 days, the last one being a 58-27 glide over North Harbour on October 3 last year, surely the question must now be asked - what's going wrong inside the Taniwha machine?

"Obviously we'd love a result but you get the result by doing the process and we're just not committing to the processes as a group," Northland head coach Richie Harris said.

"We've got boys that are probably committing to something 70 per cent of the time and 30 per cent they're not. We've got too many across the team - if it was one person we'd be fine, but it's more than that and that means we get inevitably exposed."

Splitting open Northland's defensive line on Saturday, Auckland's star-studded backline displayed flair aplenty on the way to running in their side's 10 tries, surpassing their previous point-scoring record against Northland.

Harris admitted it was not easy to come from behind with the points margins that have been inflicted on them over the past two months.

"It's just having the will to commit to something and having faith it'll work, both on attack and defence - it's not sustained through the game.

"Chasing a scoreboard makes it hard and there were some points that Auckland got because we were chasing a scoreboard."

With a quick turnaround on the schedule as they prepare to host Otago this Wednesday, Northland's injury count is on the brink again.

Jone Macilai suffered a concussion during the Auckland dismantling and his fellow winger Filipo Nakosi is facing time on the bench after picking up a leg injury.

In search of the elusive win, a match against Otago and a depleted North Harbour this weekend could award the Taniwha a consolation prize for their efforts.

However, Harris is intent on drilling the basics into his side to lift their game, both mentally and physically, for 80 minutes.

"It takes a bit of commitment and attitude to build on those things," he said. Auckland 64 (Akira Ioane 2, George Moala 2, Greg Pleasants-Tate, Melani Nanai, Lolagi Visinia, Bryce Heem, Mitch Karpik, Kirk Eklund tries; Simon Hickey 5 con; Jono Hickey con; Calvary Fonoti con) Northland 21 (Warren Dunn 2 tries; Dan Hawkins 2 con). Half-time: 35-0.