THE WOOD ON RUGBY - Forwards concoct victory

After watching Northland beat Tasman in Whangarei last week, two thoughts came to mind.
Firstly, not since the All Blacks played Scotland at a water-logged Eden Park in 1975 have I attended a game where so much rain fell and the ground was so inundated with water.
On that day I stood with my school mates at the back of the terraces, sheltering from the rain, and witnessed a dominant All Black forward pack mastermind a handsome victory.
At the game against Tasman I had the pleasure of being dry at the back of the Homeworld Stadium to witness a similar forward domination by Northland which paved the way to victory. Secondly, there was the nature of the performance.
Rugby is never a ten-man game. There is the term loosely referred to as "ten-man rugby", which is a game that describes the most important players on the park as being the forward pack, the halfback and first-five.
Northland v Tasman clearly was such a match and it was absolutely critical that the forward pack gains an edge. For every metre gained by the forwards at scrums, lineouts, rucks and mauls it gives the half back and first five that little bit of extra time to control the game.
In a nutshell, effectively this game was decided by the metres gained, whether it was the forwards in the pick-and-go and driving play or the backline bursts led by Josh Levo and Tony Koonwaiyou.
It was also helped by Tasman players, in particular their loose forwards, who appeared to be playing dry weather rugby, trying to ride opposition players to the deck so they could forage for the ball.
In these conditions, Northland had players closely in support, so it was a rare occasion where penalties were given for players being isolated. In the end, this tactic lead to Northland getting over the advantage line and providing the time for Corey Tamou to have his best game in the Cambridge Blue jersey.
I questioned his performance last week but the conditions and the type of game were tailormade for his type of rugby.
Once again, the Northland scrum was solid and this helped provide another stable platform for the half combinations to go forward in field position.
In the end no tries were scored but, especially for Northland viewers, there was good entertainment value. It was a committed and relatively error-free encounter given the terrible conditions.