RUGBY: Last-gasp dubious try spoils season opener

As it is, the relationship between Northland rugby fans and Television Match Officials is, at best, tenuous.
After another precarious call from the TMO in the Air NZ Cup championship opener at Okara Park on Saturday it might pay for the remote-controlled referee not just to set up his television behind the comfort of a glass cabinet at Homeworld Stadium, but to consider hooking up his monitor in a bullet-proof shelter. Somewhere else.
Northland drew with North Harbour 27-all in the first match of their Air NZ Cup campaign on Saturday, a try awarded in the dying seconds of the game helping the visiting side to salvage the draw in front of a stunned audience of about 4000 spectators.
But after coming so close to causing the first upset of the season, questions about a pivotal decision had many inside the Northland rugby camp asking some questions of the TMO. Both Nothland captain Justin Collins and coach Mark Anscombe said the try should never have been awarded to Harbour prop James Afoa, with queries about an illegal double movement to get the touchdown.
It was a critical call that they both believe could easily have seen Afoa penalised. Instead he was awarded the try in the shadow of the goalposts, it was converted, and the game finished seconds later with the scores level.
"I thought it was a double movement but apparently the upstairs bloke was only watching from the last movement, not the one before it," Collins said.
"There's not much we can do about it, but we were all lined up behind the posts and we were all pretty sure it was a rabbit (double movement)," he said.
Anscombe agreed, saying the replay never gave the TMO the chance to judge a possible penalty offence by playing Afoa's last action alone and not showing the play leading up to the try.
It was a bitter pill for the Northland camp to swallow after coming tantalisingly close to beating Harbour on Saturday, a performance that has suddenly lifted the profile of a team that has struggled for credibility in the provincial competition.
But in the wash-up the Northland team were as frustrated with their own efforts as they were by any TMO decision. Harbour, with a bevy of backline stars on song, threatened to clear out after charging out to a 17-3 lead early in the first half.
Sweeping counterattacks sparked by Blues fullback George Pisi and Highlanders wing Viliame Waqaseduadua had Northland stretched. But handling errors cost Harbour the chance to nail their early advantage, and set the stage for a remarkable Northland resurgence.
Star Northland wing Fetu Vainikolo glided past stranded tacklers to score just before halftime to close the game up and when boisterous flanker Joel McKenty bulldozed over just after the restart Northland edged out to a 20-17 lead.
Harbour squared the ledger with a penalty but then David Holwell produced a crowd-pleasing seven pointer to set up the spell-binding finish.
Ahead 27-20 Northland looked set to score a massive upset until they coughed up the ball, conceded a penalty then gave away the try.
In the meantime Holwell, statistically rated as the most reliable goal kicker in the competition last season, had hit the uprights with a penalty kick as well.
"At 17-3 it was not looking good but at that point we started playing like we talked about all week. In the end it was a game that got away from us, but we had a poor start and that cost us," Anscombe said.
"We talked about the Harbour backline before the game and how individuals could murder us and that is what happened," he said.
"Dooley (Holwell) would kick those penalties 99 times out of 100 and that would have given us a six point lead at a crucial stage. Funny, it is always the little things that come back and get you in games like this," he said.
Northland's next championship game is against Otago in Dunedin on Friday night.