Northland into quarterfinals with Bay whitewash

The Northland Development  team secured a spot in their competition's quarterfinals next week with a hard-earned 24-0 win over Bay of Plenty B yesterday.
Northland were clearly the better side in the match, fighting their way to a nil-all stalemate at halftime, while at the same time taking on a howling gale with sporadic  heavy rain.
The bonus point effort pleased coach Adriaan Ferris.
"The conditions were terrible but it showed the effort the boys put in during the spell and we were unlucky not to lead at halftime," he said.
"We play Auckland Emerging Players next weekend in Auckland, and we're really looking forward to that because we've got a chance to redeem ourselves for losing to them in the last minute of our last game against them."
 With the wind in their back in the second half, Northland began to construct their win. Hughie Rawiri, called into the team to replace the injured Cass Walding, kicked with pinpoint accuracy to keep them on the front foot and eventually
the pressure began to tell on the visitors' pack.
It was no real surprise that all of Northland's tries were scored by their forwards. Haimoana Brown scored two, Matt Harrison another and Ross Wright's effort got them a bonus point. Luke Muggeridge kicked two conversions.
The coach was excited at how well the side has progressed since coming together.
"We've been building every week and this win - against a side that haven't always given up a lot of points - proves the boys have got what it takes and we know that we'll go into next week's challenge giving it everything," Ferris said.
Northland's under-18 side went down 18-3 to Auckland B at Pakuranga, while the U16 team went down 34-15 at Silverdale in a game they might have won on another day.
Northland finished this year's Roller Mills tournament at Wesley College with a creditable fifth place after beating Thames Valley 45-5 on Friday and Bay of Plenty 15-5 on Saturday.
Northland only lost one game in the tournament to Auckland West but it was enough to keep them out of the semifinals after the two teams finished equal on points in their pool. They did, however, beat last year's champions Auckland East 12-10 to become holders of the Vancouver Cup, a challenge trophy played for in the pool stages of the competition, for the year.