Otago simply too good as Taniwha turns in worst effort

Northland's Jekyll and Hyde Air New Zealand Cup campaign continued last night  with their poorest performance to date as they were well beaten 27-7 by Otago on their return to Okara Park.
Northland captain Jared Payne was unable to come up with a reason why, after the opening five minutes of the game, the home side failed to fire a shot in the match.
"We trained better this week than we have so far this year and we were fired up for the game, so I can't say what went wrong, we just weren't up for it tonight.
"Nothing went right for us, our defence was woeful, we didn't execute our plays ... it's going to be hard to sort out the problems we had tonight in a short turnaround next week, before we head down to Southland," he said.
If Northland were off their game almost from the opening whistle - credit has to be lavished on Otago, particularly on their forwards, who were simply too good.
The Otago loose forward trio shadowed their Northland counterparts and Adam Thompson scored two of their four tries. The blindside flanker was unlucky not to complete his hat-trick in the final play of the match but stuck a boot into touch,  though not even the most ardent Taniwha supporter would have begrudged him the score.
A pleased Otago captain, Alando Soakai, said unlike Northland, almost everything had gone right for the visitors.
"Our tight five set the platform this week, we thrive on a good set-piece and that gave our loosies a chance to play the game," he said.
Soakai said  there was some hope for Northland ahead of their tough road trip to Invercargill next week to compete against Southland. He said Otago had bounced back after a poor performance in Palmerston North last week. "The results in this competition mean that it's going to be a tight finish and if you don't front up every week you'll get knocked out," Soakai said.
Northland couldn't have asked for a better start to the game, they scored their only try in the third minute.
For once at least in the game, the Taniwha got to experience quick ball from the ruck and they scored as a result. A half break by Lachie Munro started the move - the ball was recycled quickly - and Joel McKenty broke the line, when he was caught, he flicked the ball up to Jared Payne who ran in under the posts. Many of the 4500 strong crowd were still filing in after a long queue had formed outside the main entrance. Unfortunately, by the time the crowd had found their seats
Northland had gone off the boil. A series of aimless plays and ill discipline had handed Otago the advantage.
They needed no second invitation and their loose forwards led the way.
All three Otago first half tries came from set-pieces that showed some deep confusion in the Northland defence.
A lack of defenders saw Ryan Shortland scored untouched on the left wing in the eighth minute, while Paul Grant exploited a huge gap behind another lineout to punch a hole in the defence.
He combined with Soakai, who came up just short but handed the ball to Adam Thompson to score the first of his two tries.
His second came in the 25th minute, following a five metre scrum in the corner. The ball went through the hands into the centre of the field and then Thompson took an inside ball and strolled across for the try. Munro missed a couple of penalty attempts and it began to look grim for Northland. Chris Noakes added more misery for the locals with a penalty to lead 22-7 at the break.
The half finished bizarrely with Northland squandering an overlap after the hooter, with Carpenter unaccountably kicking the ball out when another pass may have produced a try.
Little improved for Northland in the second spell and Otago scored their bonus point try after Northland prop Karl Haitana was left to mark three Otago backs with Ben Smith finishing the move.
Northland 7 (J Payne try L; Munro con) Otago 29 (R Shortland, A Thompson 2, B Smith tries; C Noakes pen, 3 con). H/T 7-22