Auckland fearless despite costly first-half errors

Auckland 22 Waikato 22

The beauty of young athletes is they know no fear. Take 19-year-old Lachie Munro - he should have been a sobbing mess after 30 minutes last night.

He missed an easy tackle to gift Waikato their first try and then flung a huge pass that went straight into the arms of Waikato's Dwayne Sweeney.

They should have been confidence-draining errors. The sorts of mistakes that kill a career before it ever starts.

Munro barely seemed to notice. Instead of crying into his soup, Auckland's first five-eighths shrugged his shoulders and continued to play his natural game, a mix of electric running and Stephen Larkham-style passing.

His team-mates seemed to be taken with that approach and even though Auckland found themselves 19-0 down after half an hour as a consequence of some horrid execution, they didn't ever think about retiring into their shells.

Far from it, in fact. The rugby became even more adventurous as Munro fired some wonderful flat passes across the face of the Waikato defence and David Smith charmed the paltry crowd with his spirited attacks that saw him score a seriously good try with a neat chip and regather.

By the final whistle, Auckland were probably the least happy with a draw. From a disastrous start, they were the side with all the momentum and played all the rugby in the second 40 minutes. It might even be fair to say they played most of the rugby in the first half, too, with Waikato living off Auckland's mistakes.

If this game had to be settled on the night with a period of extra time, the home side would have scooped the smart money.

The more Auckland chanced their arm, the more their confidence grew. By midway through the second half, the big forwards were getting in on the act. Saimone Taumeopeau refused to go to ground no matter how many Waikato defenders tried to derail him and Brad Mika made his sizeable presence felt off the bench.

This was Auckland as we remembered from last year. They weren't afraid to run from deep and the first option was always to assess what was on and then make a decision.

It's a thrilling way to play, particularly when Auckland have so many gifted and penetrative runners. What will have pleased coach Pat Lam as much as the mental fortitude to weather the early storm was the number of line breaks Auckland made.

They had no trouble with that part of the deal, it was picking the best support runner or making an accurate pass that prevented them from putting the game beyond doubt.

Still, even though Auckland didn't quite secure a famous victory, as comebacks go, this was right up there. For most of the first half, Auckland were having real bother dealing with Waikato's rush defence.

They are one of the only sides in New Zealand to work from the outside in and rush the inside ball carrier. Last year, they struggled with that concept but now appear to have got the hang of it and for periods of the first half, Auckland were being all too isolated behind the gain line with no support.

There will probably be a few teams that suffer the same fate when they play Waikato in the weeks to come. That's because Waikato have a powerful and effective backrow that was able to shift Auckland off the ball last night and control the breakdown.

Liam Messam is a seriously gifted footballer who charged around Eden Park as if he was the joint's gaffer. He's played a lot of sevens, something that once appeared to be terminal to his ambitions to crack the 15-man code, but that now appears to be working itself out of his system.

Now he's good cop-bad cop rolled into one quite explosive package.

Auckland 22 (K. Haiu, S. Taumoepeau, D. Hill, B. Mika tries; B. Atiga con)
Waikato 22 (R. Kinikinilau, D. Sweeney, L. Messam tries; D. Hill 2 cons, pen).
HT: Waikato 19-0