Taniwha remain rooted at bottom of standings

BRIEF BREAKOUT: Northland winger Filipo Nakosi busts through the Taranaki lines in the ITM Cup Championship match at Toll Stadium on Sunday. PICTURE/JOHN STONE

Northland 7 Taranaki 36 (ht 0-21): The hapless season continues for Northland with their third comprehensive loss on the trot, this one coming in front of a home crowd at Toll Stadium on Sunday.

Noting Northland were again penalised at set piece - being mostly unable to find an answer to Taranaki's dominant forward pack. Advocate reporter Josh Berry spoke to Dan Pryor after the game in an interview which saw the Taniwha co-captain expressing his frustration at his own side's inability to execute at scrums and lineouts, particularly with the midway point of the ITM Cup campaign looming.

"There was no real turning point ... " Pryor told Berry, "We couldn't even win our lineouts and if you don't have the ball you don't win the game. We did win some but it was just a couple, and a couple of times in 80 minutes is not going to win you games so we'll have to look at that if we want to make a dent on this competition," said Pryor, prepared to shoulder some of the blame for the loss.

"I feel like I made 120 tackles and probably missed more than I made. It wasn't a good day in the office, but that's footy and I've got to go work on my game and [try and] come back."

There was some local interest in the otherwise forgettable performance, with 'Awanui's' Filipo Nakosi earning his first start of the season after scoring a hat-trick for the Northland Development side last month, while Kerikeri's Sam Nock also impressed Berry from halfback. Other Far North players involved on Saturday included Awanui's Dan O'Rourke and at No 6, Jone Macilai Tori at No 23 (on the bench), and Kawakawa's Joshua Goodhue at No 4.

The result makes in 30 wins to 17 in favour of Taranaki with one draw in the 48 times the two sides have played each other since 1924; and Northland have not beaten Taranaki since July 2010. The Taniwha's next game is away to Manawatu in Palmerston North this coming Sunday.

OTHER RESULTS. Sunday's curiian raiser to the ITM Cup championship/ lower tier clash at Toll Stadium saw the Northland Roller Mills side lose narrowly to North Harbour counterparts in a pre-season clash. Northland host the annual weight- and age-restricted tournament for primary school players from September 27 to October 4.

Far North players in the Northland Roller Mills team are, Huia Leau, Kaharau Atutolu (both from Hokianga); Zachary Shanks, Reno Leef, Taitimu Murray, Kobie Scutt (all Mangonui); and, Adam Williams, Shawn Hunt, Lucas Casey, Mason Frear, Josh Whyte, Andrew Nimmo and Matthew Wihongi (representing the Bay of Islands).

Elsewhere, it proved an disappointing weekend for Northland rep sides. Other results were: Bs: Northland Development 20 Auckland Colts 22: described as another last-second defeat at Marist, 19s: North Harbour 48 Northland 15 at North Harbour, 18s: Northland Vikings 12 Auckland East 21, 14s: Auckland South 34 Northland North Zone 0, 16s: Auckland South 16 Northland North Zone 5; with the result from the secondary schoolgirls match between Northland and Auckland in Waitakere on Sunday yet to be advised. The only Northland-related side to record a win appeared to be the Northland South Zone U14s, who beat Auckland West 28-12.