RUGBY - Crowd roars, Northland wins, but play-offs off

Try-scoring Tongan winger Fetu Vainikolo showed his style as the Northland rugby team beat Counties 20-10 in Whangarei yesterday, but it was a win made hard work by a series of botched tries from the home team.
Northland No.8 Jake Paringatai leaps for lineout ball in an Air NZ Cup match against Counties-Manukau in Whangarei yesterday. Northland won 20-10.Michael Cunningham
THERE MUST have been times very recently when Fetu Vainikolo had occasion to wonder about his decision to turn down a plane ticket to France with the Tongan team now at the Rugby World Cup.
Last week, for instance, when he was sitting on the reserves bench at Napier would be one, chastised for sleeping in and missing the start of training.
Mind you, training started at 10am. That's hardly a demanding wake-up call.
About halfway through watching the live telecast of his Tongan brothers getting the winning edge over their Polynesian cousins Samoa might have got him thinking, too.
If he watched television coverage of Tonga playing South Africa on Saturday night Vainikolo probably would have been so primed he would be dive-tackling his flatmates. He would be well-advised not to admit it if he did, though. Bedtime curfew would have been well before 2am Saturday and his flatmates are teammates Rene Ranger and Tony Koonwaiyou.
There were probably moments when Vainikolo's coaches wondered as well, to be honest. But not yesterday.
Yesterday, Vainikolo displayed the sort of try-scoring magic that made him such a hot property when the Rugby World Cup squads were being finalised.
It seems as if Vainikolo is just getting a grip on rugby at representative level. There is this bubble of confidence around him, an aura that gave Northland the kudos over Counties yesterday.
He scored a try yesterday with a blast of energy, a sidestep and fend and a one-handed lunge at the try-line that was a thrill to witness in the first half. Every touch from then on was laced with enthusiasm and accompanied by a rib-rattling roar of approval from the hometown crowd.
"I have no regrets. I have always wanted to play Air NZ Cup rugby and here I am playing it, so I haven't got much to complain about," Vainikolo said.
"It feels like I belong now. I am just relaxing a bit, like the coaches tell me to, to relax and just have a go, really. Now I just yell for the ball, all day I yell for the ball.
"It was good to get a try and better to get a win; that's what we had to do, get a win for our captain."
It took a while for Northland to bury the Counties challenge and mark Justin Collins' 100th game for the province yesterday, though, a mission made all the more difficult by various players muffing certain tries.
No.8 Jake Paringatai (twice), winger Glenn Martin, loosie John Cocker and even Vainikolo himself were all guilty parties in that regard. They all had touchdowns turned down by the ref.
Three knock-ons over the line and held up three times. Now that's rugby suicide.
That kept Counties in the game until the 55th minute, but even up to that point Northland had the edge in size and aggression, were fitter by some margin, were prepared to chance their arm, and looked far more convincing when they did so.
Counties had one scratchy try scored against the run of play to boast about.
But for all the endeavour there was very little to show for it on the scoreboard. Only Tony Koonwaiyou got over in the second spell after Paringatai sledgehammered his way through the defence.
The tragedy of this is that Northland needed a bonus point win to keep their chances - vague though they were - of making a quarter-final alive this year.
No matter what they do against Waikato next week - and they would have needed another four-try victory to have any chance - they will not be part of the play-off season this year.
Look me in the eye and tell me they deserved to get there anyway.