Northland gets a Turbo boost

The Northland Taniwha blew away any lingering doubts of their ITM Cup pedigree yesterday with a scintillating display of free flowing rugby, running in a record 10 tries against a hapless Manawatu.
The record 77-8 win over the Manawatu Turbos was a testament to their attack-from-anywhere philosophy that has been apparent in their three matches in the competition to date.
Skipper Jared Payne was one of the architects of the win, with a strong game at centre, breaking the line with ease and picking up four tries in the match. It was another  Northland record against Manawatu - but well short of the seven tries scored by Norm Berryman in the second division match over Wairarapa Bush in 1994.
Payne said it was the first time he had ever scored four tries in any match but the skipper, as usual, was not one to blow his own trumpet.
"It was the boys who opened them up, I was the one who was on hand to back them up and finish off the tries today," he said.
Payne said it had been a perfect response to the heartbreak of the previous week, where a drop-goal saw them defeated 24-25 by North Harbour.
"We were hurting from that loss all week but we started from scratch again and this is the best way to bounce back, once we got ahead, we certainly didn't take our foot off their throat this week," he said.
Manawatu briefly showed why they had threatened Canterbury in their game last week but struggled to match Northland for long, perhaps missing their influential skipper Nick Crosswell.
Northland were able to punch holes in their defence particularly in the midfield and on the flanks and there always seemed to be a player backing up.
Unlike last week against Harbour all the high risk passes stuck and if a player was pulled down after making a break, there was another player there to set up the ruck.
Dean Budd broke through the Turbos' midfield to set Dan Prior free for the first try in the 10th minute before Lachie Munro and Doug Tietjens were both shown the yellow card for a disagreement in the 35th minute.
David Holwell then showed the benefit of all his experience to grubber into the in-goal for Payne's first try to lead 20-3 at the 30 minute mark.
The Turbos came back into the game late in the first spell with a try to prop Ma'afu Fia but then ruined their good work by conceding a penalty and a try just before the break to trail 30-8 at the turnaround.
The visitors started the second spell disastrously with Hadleigh Parkes gifting David Holwell a try under the posts, but they battled gamely to get back into the game and might have scored minutes later but Northland committed their forwards to a defensive ruck and Dean Budd made an important steal to relieve the pressure.
Craig Clare then continued Manawatu's dismal day when he was sinbinned for an ugly looking tackle on Rhyan Caine.
The effort of constant defending sapped the Manawatu side and they conceded two tries during Clare's absence - enough to settle any Taniwha fears of a comeback - and Northland then tormented them further by throwing the ball around to pick up another four tries.
In front of a smallish crowd of around 3500, Northland inflicted Manawatu's biggest ever defeat, surpassing the 64-10 defeat by Canterbury in 2007.
Lachie Munro's 32 points also passed his total of 26 against Taranaki last year but still trails the evergreen David Holwell's record of 38 set against Thames Valley in 1997. Despite the records falling coach Bryce Woodward remains a hard man to please.
"I'm happy with the win but I wouldn't say elated - that what happens when you beat a good side, Manawatu can play some good footy but after about 60 minutes today they gave up," he said.
He applauded the way the team played but warned Auckland will be a tougher proposition next week.
"The [pre-season] match at Dargaville showed us if we don't look after the ball at the clean out, Auckland will turn it into a bun fight and they've got some big mean forwards there to compete with so it's going to be a challenge," he said.
 
Northland 77 (Jared Payne 4, Lachie Munro 2, Dan Pryor, David Holwell, Rhyan Caine, Mark Burman tries; Munro 2 pen, 8 con, David Holwell pen, con) Manawatu 8 (Ma'afu Fia try; Craig Clare pen).