"We identified pre-game that the two players that rushed a lot were the No7 [Boys] and No13 [Moffat]. The No7 got the charge down try and the No13 got an intercept try so obviously we didn't pay enough caution to that.
"We thought there was real opportunities in behind and we sort of put kicks in behind them but we didn't do that effectively enough."
Staring down the barrell of another tough challenge in the form of Wellington this weekend, the path ahead doesn't get a whole lot easier for Northland.
However, there are some promising signs.
With their scrum on the ropes against Hawke's Bay in round one, the Taniwha managed to engage better at scrum time against Southland.
Coupled with the positives that their lineout continues to produce, the platform for success around executing the set piece is right in front of them.
"If we can build on another couple of weeks of good scrum stability then we can start to launch things off it," Harris said.
"Hopefully we continue building on that scrum power because, at the moment, we are not launching much from it. The attack is still struggling a bit and we probably played far too much rugby in our own area. We probably went away from what we'd talked about and played way too much rugby in our own critical zone."
Northland co-captain Matt Moulds can feel the tide turning at his team's heels.
"We've got high standards and it was disappointing last week to challenge the Ranfurly Shield like that so we had a pretty honest review and sorted out our set piece, which was really good," Moulds said.
"We're there, there's a few too many errors on attack but, once we sort those out, we'll be away, I think. The boys inside have to back the boys outside so it's about being smart."
