Pain ends in Northland victory

Northland ended 31 years of pain at Carisbrook by beating Otago 13-8 in a tense ITM Cup match match in Dunedin.
A late try to captain Jared Payne snared victory for the visitors, who haven't won at the southern venue since 1979.
That run looked like continuing as an Otago side, who largely dominated possession and territory, fought back from a 3-0 halftime deficit to lead 8-3 with less than 15 minutes remaining in yesterday's vital match.
However, a second penalty to Northland winger Lachie Munro was followed by the game's decisive moment in the 73rd minute when a cutout pass from veteran first five-eighth David Holwell gave space to their three key strike weapons.
Centre Rene Ranger found Munro free on the left flank and he sent an inside ball to fullback Payne to keep the Northlanders well in the hunt for a semifinal berth.
The result was a turnaround for Northland coach Bryce Woodward, who was relieved to watch his side pick up a much-needed four points.
"After playing well and losing against some very good teams over the past few weeks, it's great to nail a win, even if you don't play particularly well," Woodward said.
After making good ground from moving the ball around from anywhere on the park in the opening 20 minutes of the game, things started to go wrong for the Taniwha. Otago began to close down, and force errors from the dangerous Northland midfield, and slow down their ruck ball starving the visitors of space and eventually possession.
Northland were then called on to defend for large periods of the match and did well enough to stop Otago taking advantage of their long periods on attack.
A penalty to replacement first five-eighth Hayden Parker and try to lock Hayden Triggs, both midway through the second spell, marked the home side's best period of play.
Otago tighthead prop Halani Aulika was again impressive, along with dynamic No8 Adam Thomson and loosie Alando Soakai, but they couldn't hold out a Northland side who always looked threatening out wide.
Flankers Dan Pryor and Dean Budd continued their outstanding campaigns for the Taniwha, with Rhyan Caine good at halfback.
Woodward said the scrum was much improved this week and had done their homework against Otago, letting the referee know that they believed Kees Meuws was scrummaging illegally - leading to some early penalties for the visitors.
"I was delighted with Matt Wallis at scrum time, it's the first time we've had an edge in the scrum all season and I've got to take my hat off to all those up front," he said.
Another to impress was winger Mateo Malupo, whose steal and run led to the Taniwha try.
Northland now have two vital games in coming weeks , against Counties Manukau in Pukekohe and Waikato in Whangarei.

Otago 8 (H Triggs try; H Parker pen) Northland 13 (J Payne try; L Munro 2 pens, con).