Forwards pack a punch

It wasn't the result they were hoping for but the Northland Secondary School girls' team had something to be proud of after their big defeat by Auckland on Saturday.
The team went down  39-0 against the visitors at Hora Hora Park but, on the positive side, Northland's forwards gave the bigger Auckland pack a hard time throughout, Northland coach Rana Paraha said.
"They were really awesome and at times completely outplayed Auckland's forwards but in the backs it was a different story," she said.
Although individually many of the backs played well, as a unit they were blown away by the skill and speed of the Auckland backs, with their defence exposed several times by some classy side-stepping and a more varied kicking game.
"The score was not too bad considering we were playing Auckland. Usually we get scores of 50+ against us when we play them - so the girls did really well," Paraha  added.
The team have  been very competitive in the five-strong competition to date, going down to Counties-Manakau in a thrilling first match  32-27. They then bounced back to outplay a Bay of Plenty selection 22-5 and their second loss against Auckland has them focusing on their final game against North Harbour.
"We've got Harbour to play now and we beat them in a pre-season game so we're confident but they may have improved since then, because they've played a few extra games, so it'll be a challenge," Paraha said.
Toll United Northland had a bye in their competition but beat North Harbour Maori in a friendly 52-0.
The run was important for Nick Collins, who had his first run of the season after getting over an ankle injury, and Sione Fonua, another A team player who has also had a injury plagued season.
Fonua scored one of the team's eight tries, with Luke Muggeridge and Isa Nawaqa both scoring doubles.
The game was a good hitout for the side, who have a tough encounter next weekend against Auckland B. Coach Adriaan Ferris said the side were  under no illusions on how tough next week would be but he was pleased with their development.
"We continue to progress every week, although the scores haven't always reflected it. The level of competition wasn't so high yesterday, but what was pleasing was that we stuck to our game plan and after seven or eight weeks together all the players now understand what we want from them and as a result we scored eight tries."
The under-18 Taniwha team suffered their second successive narrow loss, going down  27-25 to Bay of Plenty at Rotorua International Stadium. The Vikings under-18 team had another win, a tight 14-13 win over King Country at Kamo.
The under-16s went down  67-0 to Auckland, while the under-14s matched their Auckland counterparts for most of the game, eventually going down  13-5.