RUGBY - Gallant Northland pipped

Before the well-oiled Canterbury rugby machine rocked into Whangarei last night, pre-match predictions had Northland kowtowing to the might of the red and black by a significant margin.
Instead Canterbury met a rejuvenated Northland team and almost came unstuck. Canterbury won 5-3, but not before the home side made the kind of statement their embattled administrators have been trying to put on to paper and mail down to the suit-and-tie wearers at rugby head offices in Wellington.
Northland almost tipped the balance sheet in their favour last night, at least on the pitch at Okara Park.
But in the end weight of experience and confidence gave Canterbury the edge, albeit a narrow one, leaving Northland to wear their sixth loss on the trot (from seven games this season), a result that leaves them languishing at the smelly end of the points table.
This time the score didn't reek of anything foul though, because Northland presented a performance that gave the home fans something to cling to and banked a bonus point as well.
Canterbury had started with an intent that had the Northland staff lurching for their calculators, a try within three minutes of kick-off stunning the hosts. But the rest of first half effort from Northland was built around honest defence and some elusive runs from Derek Carpenter in the No.12 jersey and flashes of brilliance from fullback Jared Payne. The halftime score belied the donkey work of a rugged encounter, Canterbury led 5-3 and the score stayed there for the rest of the game.
The surprise was that Northland showed more enterprise. Canterbury were operating to script - old the ball for repeated phases probing for the gap - and should have put winger Scott Hamilton over the chalk at least once. But each raid was met by dogged Northland tacklers and the home team hung tough to then turn the tables for the second quarter.
Northland efforts did not produce the much-needed rewards, although had flanker Joel McKenty had a bit more speed he would have scored a five pointer inside the first 10 minutes.
Instead the scoring action was limited to two moments: A try to Tim Bateman for Canterbury and a penalty goal from the boot of David Holwell. It turned out that was the only scoring action of the entire match, Holwell missing two more shots at the sticks either side of halftime.
The second stanza was a bone-crunching wrestle.
Before the game there was only faint hope that Northland could follow their usual habit - that of lifting to meet the challenge of one of the banner teams in the championship. But there had been few, if any, positive portents in the preparations to signal this effort, especially after their star turn back, Rene Ranger, had cried off with a dodgy hamstring on Wednesday. Canterbury had obviously cast their eye over Northland's record so far and opted to keep some of their powder dry. The Canterbury experiment almost backfired. Northland has been an experiment of sorts all season, but that's another story altogether.
Scorers: Canterbury (Tim Bateman try), Northland 3 (David Holwell pen). Halftime: 5-3 Canterbury.