Northland ready to defy odds again in semis showdown

The Northland development squad travel to Pakuranga tomorrow  hoping to overcome the odds and earn a place in the final of the northern zone development competition.
The team will go into the game as underdogs at Bell Park against an Auckland B team with some exciting talent - but, as coach Adriaan Ferris says, that has been the story of their season.
It is the coach's first season with the team and he says they have continued to improve from a slow start to be real chances in tomorrow's semifinal.
"All I can ask is that the players put in the effort they've put in all year and the result will take care of itself," he said.
The two teams met at the end of September and Northland were in the match until the final three minutes, when the competition favourites scored a late try to win 24-14. Ferris will ask the team for another effort like that.
"The score blew out at the end of the game and we're quietly confident that we have the players to make a close match of it - we'll front all right - the biggest part of the challenge for us  is getting that self-belief that we can take on the teams like Auckland and do well," he said.
"We won't be changing anything we're doing, the thing that's been working for us in the last month has been getting up defensively to put pressure on them and backing ourselves in attack."
The team will be missing a couple of their top players for tomorrow's match.
But that didn't stop them beating Auckland Emerging Players 37-30 for their semifinal place - turning over a defeat in the
round-robin section of the competition. "It's a bit of a double-edged sword for us really. It's good the boys are getting recognised and getting an opportunity to go up to the Air New Zealand Cup, but it's a little bit frustrating for us that team is getting weakened when we need them the most," he said.
Loosehead prop Nash Massey and loose forward Matt White have been drafted into the side from the Northland U-20s to cover Ross Wright and Matt Harrison, who will both start from the bench for the A team against Waikato tomorrow night.
"Both of them are players of the future for Northland and it gives them a chance to get a taste of the game at this level. We're not too sure how much game time they're going to get, we'll just take it as it comes."
The match starts at Bell Park at 2.30pm.
Northland: 5 1 Moto Peters, 2 Robbie Abel, 3 Haimona Davis, 4 Steve Baker/Elliot Nelson, 5 Rueben Wright, 6 Solomon Palu, 7 Jared McKenzie, 8 Stu Oldfield, 9 Ross Neal, 10 Hugh Rawiri, 11 Maurice Cooper, 12 Warren Dunn, 13 Jojo Ranger, 14 Sione Fonua, 15 Luke Muggeridge. Reserves: Sam Ward, Nash Massey, Ethan Crucher, Elliot Nelson/Matt White, Scott Wilson, Cass Walding/Logan Wendt, Matt Wright.