North Zone in gripping final

Northland's North Zone reached the inaugural final of the Blues' Regional under 14 competition but came up just short against Auckland South in an exciting match 15-20.
Northland had to play catch-up in the final in Auckland on Sunday after Auckland South started strongly, scoring two quick tries before North Zone had settled.
Pressure was applied by Northland and second-five eighth Anton Osborne cut through the defence to score next to the posts, making it 10-7.
But just before half-time Auckland South replied, with their big backs bursting through again making it 17-7 at the break.
North Zone playing with the wind, lifted their game with Hamish Pomare scoring after a period of great control, bringing it back to 17-12. It was game on then with Auckland South beginning to feel the pressure.
A bit of individual brilliance by the Auckland South first five-eighth to snap a 40m drop goal into the wind with 15 minutes to go putting them 20-12 up. The Northland side was quickly back on attack and was awarded a penalty kick, slotted by Tom Smith to narrow the gap to 20-15.
The Northland side scented blood and applied huge pressure with Cody Kemp-Bruce, Mana Taylor, Tama Korewha and Blair Guy leading the way. Auckland South were obviously frustrated and found themselves down to 13 men after the referee stepped in to stop their dangerous and head high tackles. Although down in numbers they still defended well and Northland were unable to convert their pressure into points.
After the final whistle the Northland team knew they had allowed some unfamiliar errors to let the game slip away but their coach's Pete Nock and Robert Rush thought the players were just not used to playing in the intensity of the final and the experience would serve them well in the future.
"We are very proud of the boys to what they have done in such a short time. The players have learned heaps and really, all of them lifted to a level they are not used to," Nock said.
"To beat two Auckland sides is something Northland doesn't achieve very often so the boys have come a long way and shown their great talent during this series."
North Zone forward of the tournament was Kemp-Bruce with the back of the tournament going to Levi Clark, although Nock said North Zone's captain Pomare would have come close too.
The Northland North team went into the final after defeating Auckland East in Saturday's final pool match.
The match was a dilemma for coach Nock, with his son Sam playing in the Auckland East team at first five-eighth.
Nock junior was involved in the first Auckland try, putting his winger in with a cut-out ball in reply to an early Pomare try. When Pomare crossed for his second to put them ahead 13-8, the game swung back toward the home side and they scored and converted to lead 15-13 but Northland finished better, applying continuous pressure which led to Smith kicking two further goals to win the match 18-15 at progress to Sunday's final.
A lack of precision and some poor tackling cost the Northland South Zone under 14 team their first victory in the competition on Saturday going down to Auckland Central 24-28 in a nail-biter. After having first use of the wind Northland led 17-7 at the break, producing some entertaining rugby outscoring their big city rivals by three tries to one. Unfortunately a couple of scoring opportunities were wasted in the first half when the tryline was wide open.
Playing into the wind in the second half with only a ten point lead required good ball retention and urgency in defence. The team did well in that area and was leading 24-10 with 10 minutes to go when two one-on-one tackles were missed giving Central the lead 28-24 with three minutes remaining.
The last play of the game saw South zone hot on attack and only a deflection from central player stopped a try being scored and the chance to win was gone. Players to stand out were Jared Corston, hooker Kodi Brown, Jordayne Tibbits and first five-eight Mana Williams.
In their final match against Auckland East, the Northland South Zone team played well but was never rewarded on the scoreboard.
Down 8-3 at the break, the South Zone forwards continued to showed aggression, taking it to their opponents at the breakdown. A couple of turn overs proved critical leading to two well deserved tries to the Auckland side.
South came back with a penalty to stay in touch at 15-6 and the score remained the same until the last play when a Northland kick was charged down and East went 80 metres to score blowing the final score out to 22-6.
The Northland Rugby under-18 representative team had their first competition win of the season on Saturday defeating Auckland B 26 to 24 in a very tight game at the Old Boys Ground, with the winning points coming from a last minute Tyler Landsdowne penalty goal.
The game was evenly contested throughout with neither team able to get any dominance over the other. The Northland Rugby under-15 representative team had a match against their North Harbour contemporaries at Warkworth.
They came away with a solid 24-10 victory in the end but struggled to get settled and lacked cohesion in the first half. Bradley James and Moses Fotu were the stand out players in the backs with Connor Thompson tackling hard after coming on at half-time. Keanu Hemopo and Brown had good games in the forwards while the side was very well led by Trevor Attwood at blindside flanker.
Kamo Magpies JB9 rugby team returned with silverware from the Gold Coast over the weekend after winning the the Southern Cross Cup.
The Magpies beat the Coomera Crusher 30-0 in the final of the cup competition after going through three matches of pool play undefeated.
There were four New Zealand teams in the Coast competition.