Cribb, Alcock and Evans turn tide for Harbour

By CHRIS RATTUE

NORTH HARBOUR 49 OTAGO 18

The news gets better and better for North Harbour.

Their star back Rico Gear is a rough chance to play against Taranaki on Friday night, which is another boost for a team who took their revival a step further on Saturday night by thrashing Otago at Carisbrook.

North Harbour's 31-point win was even more remarkable because Otago were at full strength, their only two World Cup players, Carl Hoeft and Byron Kelleher, being among the vanquished southerners.

Otago have lost only once - to Canterbury - at Carisbrook in 12 NPC matches since the beginning of the 2001 season.

Yet by the end on Saturday night they had run up the white flag as North Harbour sprinted home with four tries in the last quarter, including two in the final minute or so.

Rather than taking shape, the NPC is turning into a lottery with results that defy much logic.

After all, this is the Otago team who were listed as the pre-competition favourites by the TAB, while North Harbour began the season with three consecutive losses, including those to traditional strugglers Bay of Plenty and Southland.

Harbour coach Russell Jones pinpointed a key area of improvement when he said yesterday: "Our decision-making around eight, nine and 10 has come a long way over the past couple of weeks."

New captain and No 8 Ron Cribb has - apart from a week off through suspension - become more prominent, and Chad Alcock and Nick Evans are the catalyst for the revival.

South African Alcock, who ousted Ben Meyer, again showed what a strong influence he is on North Harbour, especially with his enthusiasm and sniping runs around the forward fringes.

The big-punting Evans, a steadier option to the injured Luke McAlister, has rarely been flustered in guiding North Harbour around the field.

Joe Ward and Tony Woodcock were among the impressive forwards, and New Zealand under-19 wings Rudolffe Wulf and Hosea Gear cut Otago apart at times.

Jones said: "It was always a case of getting our balance in the squad right, and making sure we address the simple things.

"That's been the Achilles heel at North Harbour for a number of years. We seem to be able to do the flamboyant, but never really control things at set phase or control the ball ... We've done that pretty well over the past few weeks.

"We didn't play well against Bay of Plenty or Auckland, but I thought we played reasonably well against Southland and we just didn't get the rub of the green.

"To be fair, though, the scoreline wasn't an indication of the game at Carisbrook. They put us to the sword early on and if they had scored another try or even kicked a penalty, then it would have put a lot of heat on us. The pleasing thing is we took our opportunities."

Gear, a member of the All Blacks' World Cup "wider group," has been out of action for seven weeks with a broken collarbone suffered on the Maori tour of Canada.

He began contact training last week, will be reassessed today, and could play on Friday night at Albany although he is not ready for 80 minutes of action. McAlister (hamstring) is also close to a return.

NPC points table