Harbour master their flighty foe

North Harbour 29 Wellington 16

North Harbour breathed life into their campaign with a thoroughly deserved victory over one of the NPC hot shots in the capital last night.

Coming off a disappointing loss to Auckland in the opening round, Harbour scored four tries to one, built a decent lead and didn't let it slip.

Wellington lived up to their reputation as the unpredictables of the first division. The names are there, consistent form to back that up is not.

Most eyes, including six belonging to All Black selectors in the stands, were on Luke McAlister from the start. But it was Wellington captain Ma'a Nonu who was first to grab the attention.

He was a dominant figure with a series of blockbusting charges, notably in the first half, and set up Wellington's only try for Jimmy Gopperth.

As for McAlister, it was a curate's egg of a performance, some good moments, some not. He tried a variety of kicks to wrongfoot the Wellington defensive line, with mixed success.

He was badly at fault for the Gopperth try, although to be fair Nonu resembles a runaway tank at times like this, and threw one aimless long pass into no man's land which was intercepted and would have cost North Harbour seven points but for a forward pass.

But on the plus side, he did well to shove Hosea Gear into the corner flag in the final moments of the half to save a try, had a hand in two second-half tries, searched for work and kicked one superb sideline conversion.

Harbour had the better of the first half and were substantially superior in the second.

They did not receive a penalty until the 32nd minute - there were only five in the half, and the first didn't arrive until the 11th minute - they showed good support play, had periods of recycled possession, took turns to produce powerful scrums and were energetic in everything.

They put together 10 phases from the kickoff and got the early advantage when lively halfback Junior Poluleuligaga scored his debut NPC try after nine minutes.

In a well-worked move, fullback George Pisi ran onto a good short ball from Anthony Tuitavake and Poluleuligaga was on hand expertly to finish the move off.

Nonu brought Wellington level when he ran over McAlister, drew two other tacklers before slipping a pass to Gopperth for a try which combined brute strength with intelligent support play.

After Goppeth missed a penalty attempt from a handy spot and Nonu had dished out a big don't argue handoff to Tuitavake, Harbour grabbed the initiative.

From a lineout near the Wellington line, No 8 Nick Williams barged round the front and was stopped a metre short. The ball went left, Tuitavake did well to bring in three tacklers and flip the ball to wing Vili Waqaseduadua for a good try.

That had the effect of lighting a fuse under Williams who turned on some magnificent, aggressive rugby in the second half. Built like a tank he repeatedly hurt the Wellington defensive line, as did Poluleuligaga, who is growing in stature with each outing.

It was the strongly built halfback who put Harbour six points clear when he made ground after Kristian Ormsby lost the ball at a ruck. Waqaseduadua then sped through and round four Wellington tackles for a fine try near the left corner.

But the critical score came from a muscular 20m Williams surge with a quarter of the match remaining. When he was pulled down near the line, Poluleuligaga and McAlister went left and Zar Lawrence did well to pick up a low ball and score at the corner, to nail the bonus point.

Wellington were too error-prone. No 8 Thomas Waldrom was the pick of the pack, Conrad Smith was rarely sighted and they failed to grab their chances. You could not say that about Harbour last night.

North Harbour: V. Waqaseduadua 2, J. Poluleuligaga, Z. Lawrence tries; L. McAlister 1 pen, 3 con.

Wellington: J. Gopperth try, 3 pen, con.

HT: 14-10