North sparks but Waikato wins

It took TMO calls, ankle taps and tight-heads, but Waikato withstood serious second-half pressure from Northland before easing away to a 45-33 win in an incident-packed ITM Cup match at Toll Stadium.
Northland heaped pressure on Waikato during Saturday's thriller and while both teams were dangerous from deep in their own half, the visitors were more clinical on the counter-attack.
Northland were inventive in the first half, scoring three tries - including a cheeky David Holwell tap that caught the Mooloomen napping and set up Mateo Malupo's first ITM Cup try - but the visitors responded in kind, including a double to Brendon Leonard to lead 22-20 and set up a second half showdown.
Both sides traded penalties before Northland settled into their work and began to look more likely to break the deadlock. They dominated possession and territory but desperate Waikato defence held them out.
Jared Payne was penalised by referee Chris Pollock for playing the ball in the tackle five metres out, then prop Matt Wallis crashed over but was judged held up by the television match official (TMO). The pressure on Waikato dissipated after a Northland boot coughed up a tight-head, leading to a clearance and when the ball was turned over in a ruck, Henry Speight touched down at the other end after an 80-metre breakout, dealing a heavy blow to the Taniwha.
At 32-23 both coaches went to the bench and Ross Wright made an immediate impact with the Waikato defence underestimating his speed and only an ankle tap from Stephen Donald kept him from scoring a magnificant prop's try.
Unfortunately for the Taniwha, Donald produced his best form this season, slotting eight from nine kicks and scoring the try midway through the spell that effectively won the contest.
During another period of frantic broken play, Wallis spied an opportunity on the left flank and tried to throw a long cut-out pass but only succeeded in finding Waikato skipper Nathan White, who put Donald under the posts.
The back-up All Black first five-eighths converted his try to make it 39-23. As expected, the Taniwha threw themselves into attack - literally - with Lachie Munro barrelling into halfback Brendon Leonard trying to regather a chip and taking them both out of the game, sending Leonard to hospital.
Wallis was again denied by the TMO, before a great flick pass by Jared Payne gave Mikaele Tuu'u a try in the corner with 12 minutes to go.
The bonus-point try offered a glimmer of hope for the 4000 or so Taniwha fans but another Donald penalty killed off their game. It was about then that replacement hooker Vern Kamo decided to put in an unecessary late hit on Holwell - and then hold him down - earning a few slaps from Wallis and a yellow card from Pollock for his trouble.
Dean Budd scored another consolation try with time almost up, taking him to six tries in the season - one behind skipper Payne.
Waikato's win boosted them into the competition's top four, while Northland's chances of achieving the top seven now seem very slim, leaving skipper Payne understandably disappointed after the game. "There were a few key set pieces that didn't go too well but I can't really fault the boys' effort - you can't really train to defend 80-metre turnovers and intercepts . We put them under pressure and although there were a few problems with execution, we didn't always get the luck going our way. So well done to Waikato. They took their chances well," he said.
Northland 33 (M Malupo, L Munro, C Eyre, M Tuu'u, D Budd tries: L Munro 2 pen, 1 con) Waikato 45 (T Save, B Leonard 2, H Speight, S Donald tries: S Donald 4 pen 4 con).