Rugby: Maori storm to second title

Northland Maori continued to build on their recent dominance of regional rugby by earning back-to-back Northern Zone titles on Saturday with a 37-13 win over Bay of Plenty Maori.

The victory in the senior men's final at Waitemata Stadium never looked in doubt from the opening whistle, coach Shaun Hayes said.

"The team came out firing right from the start with the forwards gaining control and the backs following that up by making some early breaks," he said.

Centre Warren Dunn was singled out as the Northland player of the competition. First five-eighths Tyler Lansdowne was also in cracking form scoring two tries and marshalling the backline against a backpedalling Bay.

"Tyler was the linchpin in the whole game, he distributed well and kicked well to get us good field position - as did Matt Wright at fullback - with Troy Gilbert also playing well," Hayes said.

The team took advantage of the wind behind them to set up the game and grab a 20-point lead at half-time.

Justin Davies, Cole Campbell, Buster Tahere and Atare Davis were the standouts up front, while the bench players also made an impact with Rodney Shepherd and Kadin Te Nana reinvigorating the side in the second half with some valuable contributions.

"It was a great all-round team effort and that's why the boys were all so stoked afterwards," Hayes said.

The coach was a little disappointed that the tournament team wasn't named after the final, saying many of the Northland side would surely have featured in it.

"There are no games scheduled after this, so there's no need to name a team ... organisers are trying to get the [national] Maori regional competition off the ground again but that isn't likely until later in the year," he said.

Northland's joy at winning the senior title was also tempered by not winning the competition for the best haka. Despite having the largest and loudest haka, they weren't able to defend the title they won last year.

A technicality - they crossed the halfway line during the challenge - gave Waikato the edge when the kaumatua sat down to judge the event, leaving many in the Northland camp muttering about "politics" influencing the final result.

Northland also had teams competing in the women's and colts' competition finals but both teams had to be content with finishing as runners-up for 2013.

The colts' team ended up narrowly losing to Waikato, coming up a try short of a win after launching a great second-half comeback. Waikato were too strong up front early on but Northland never gave up and edged their way back into the game to set up an exciting but ultimately unsuccessful finale.

It was a similar story in the women's final as a lack of execution and fitness cost them in the final minutes of the game as they tried to chase down Counties-Manukau in their final.