KEY POINTS:
North Harbour stubbed their toe badly in losing 3-2 to Auckland.
Defending champions Wellington were severely embarrassed in being thrashed 7-1 by Canterbury in the men's national league but there was no such stumble by the women from the north as Northland stretched their winning start to the season to four.
Beaten 7-3 by Harbour in round two, Canterbury put their season back on track with an expected win over Southern on Saturday but few would have foreseen the goal blitz in Christchurch yesterday as Hayden Shaw, with three, led the 7-1 come-from-behind charge.
Auckland too came from a goal down to beat a Harbour team who began strongly but lost their way once influential midfielder Ben Collier was forced off and left nursing sore ribs after a collision with Auckland defender Dean Couzins.
Three goals, all from deflections, by Gareth Brooks, Murray Yeoman and Hamish Baron, took the home side to a 3-1 lead over Harbour who got back to 3-2 with 10 minutes to play when, from their only penalty corner of the match, Dave Kosoof slammed home from a rebound for his second of the match.
After the winning start to their season, Harbour were out-passioned by the home side who deserved the points which left them in a three-way tie at the top of the table with Harbour ahead of Canterbury and Auckland on goal difference. Three points from their next three matches would be enough to ensure Northland their place in the women's semifinals.
Canterbury were thrashed 5-1 by second-placed Wellington yesterday, ending the round with just three of a possible 12 points. With Niniwa Roberts scoring a hat-trick, Wellington bounced back from their 2-1 loss to Central 24 hours earlier to embarrass the home team in Christchurch.
After a perfect start to the season with wins in their opening games, North Harbour came unstuck with a 3-1 home loss to Northland on Saturday followed by a see-saw 2-2 away draw with Auckland yesterday.
Kate Savory gave Harbour the lead after six minutes from a penalty corner. The home side hit back with field goals from Kendyl Cherry and Kim Noakes. Jaimee Claxton salvaged Harbour's only point of the weekend.
