No-frills Harbour head for semis

The feats of its rugby team may help the growing region north of the bridge shake off the "Auckland" tag, writes CHRIS RATTUE.

North Harbour 26 Taranaki 12

Expect a few North Harbour rugby flags to emerge around streets north of the bridge over the coming days.

You might even hear of a few promotions that mention the word semifinal.

North Harbour's win over Taranaki at North Harbour Stadium has surely guaranteed them a playoff position.

There are still three games to go, but Wayne Shelford's side sit proudly on top of the Air New Zealand-sponsored NPC first division for a third consecutive week, and two of their final opponents are battlers Northland and Southland.

Harbour officials are already planning meetings with their counterparts who run the stadium and city council to build the team's profile and semifinal expectations.

Among those celebrating North Harbour's deeds this year are business people and sponsors who see the success of the team as central to building an identity in the rapidly growing area north of the Auckland Harbour Bridge.

Chief executive Doug Rollerson does not want the team changing their approach.

"But we've got a bit of leeway now and we need to talk to the council and stadium about some promotions we can do," he said. "North Harbour really doesn't have an identity yet and a lot of people believe that the best way to build it is through the rugby team succeeding. That can help others in the region such as the netballers, who can piggyback on our success.

"A lot of people still say they're from Auckland. We want to stop that."

North Harbour, who have never won the first division, may see glory days ahead, but they have shelved their flamboyant past to achieve it.

A crowd of 10,200, the best at Albany this season, turned up on Saturday night to witness the new Harbour game of resilient defence, solid set pieces and low-risk attack take advantage of some inept work from Taranaki.

Taranaki dress in the colours of bumble bees, and bumbling they were on attack. They spent long periods with the ball, but it seemed whenever they broke the defence, a loose pass or dropped ball ended the venture, not to mention their hopes of making the semifinals.

The crucial and defining moment came early in the second quarter, with Taranaki leading 3-0.

North Harbour right wing Karl TeNana signalled for more defence to join him, and as Taranaki flooded players down their left-hand side, TeNana took matters into his own hands and accelerated to intercept Mark Urwin's pass.

TeNana, who runs at speed without any apparent great effort, floated off on an 80m gallop to the line and Harbour were never headed again.

On a night of faultless kicking, Willie Walker's six from six kept his side ahead of Daryl Lilley's four from four, and a Blair Urlich try made the icing a bit thicker on North Harbour's cake.

It wasn't a classic clash. As often happens in the modern game, sides are scared to go into collision points in their own half, so they indulge in the old game of kicking force back.

Walker does not always see the attacking options and on at least one occasion kicked when a decent overlap was waiting. But conservatism is at the core of North Harbour's new rugby world.

As TeNana showed, timing is everything, and Harbour have worked themselves into a position where things are in their favour.

They have a bye this week, which will allow them to patch up the wounded then relaunch their campaign towards a home semifinal.

Wing Aisea Tuilevu, No 8 Ron Cribb and even Rua Tipoki's broken hands might be mended in time for the next assignment against Northland at Albany on October 6, when Harbour will attempt to win their seventh game on the trot.