Harbour beat Northland Taniwha

Northland's set piece is under scrutiny once again after a 24-28 loss to North Harbour in their first preseason clash at Wellsford's Centennial Park.
Assistant and forwards coach Derren Witcombe flagged the scrum and line out as areas Northland will work on throughout their approaching ITM Cup campaign after being left exposed at times in Saturday's game.
"We always thought it was going to be a messy game but it was beneficial to us to clarify our systems and get the guys up to speed," Witcombe said. With neither team at full strength, the match was an opportunity to be flexible with players and trial them in different positions, such as prop Justin Davies, who had a crack at playing tighthead as opposed to his usual loosehead spot.
"It was a positive thing to give Justin a go at playing tighthead at this level, and it's reassuring to know we can play him there if needed further down the track," the assistant coach said.
With Rhyan Caine out through injury, new halfback recruit Wayne Ngaluafe patrolled the scrum and cleared the ball well. Witcombe admitted the lineouts were a work in progress after an average performance throughout the match.
North Harbour took advantage at lineout time from the start, sending winger Ken Pisi down the centre of the paddock to score off a poor lineout from Northland early in the match.
Near the end of the first 40, Northland blindside flanker Cam Eyre ran in a try in the corner, converted by centre Ash Moeke. Harbour replied right on halftime dodging a lethargic Northland defence, extending the gap again, to lead 7-14 at the break.
The Taniwha let in another easy try from lock Irwin Finau, before winger Simon Munro found space and made a break down the flank before he offloaded to stand-in skipper Aaron Bancroft, taking the score to 12-21 after Moeke missed the conversion. With 15 minutes to go, Harbour blew the score out to 12-28 with a try from James Parsons, before Ngaluafe scored to put Northland back in the game, with Moeke nailing the conversion this time.
Northland never gave up, and dotted the ball before the final whistle, but it was too little too late, with the Taniwha going down by four points. While it was a scrappy game and they were missing players to Super Rugby duties and through injury, Witcombe and head coach Adriaan Ferris were happy the team stuck to their established patterns, and they were pleased with the progress the squad had made on the back of a five-day training camp at Mangawhai.
This Saturday, Northland play another preseason match at Pakuranga's Bells Park, against Auckland, in preparation for round one of the ITM Cup kicking off on July 14.