Rugby: Dowd and Wilson enjoy their view

North Harbour players celebrate their win at Eden Park. Photo / Getty Images

Auckland 14
North Harbour 16

They were a bit like Statler and Waldorf from The Muppets - those cantankerous, old men who lean from the balcony and heckle the leading characters.

North Harbour coaches Craig Dowd and Jeff Wilson leaned out from their prefabricated room, window open, directing traffic. They gesticulated at linesmen and told their reserves what to yell to the referee.

By the end, they didn't have much to complain about. They saw their side's first win in seven matches and their first in the Battle of the Bridge since 2004.

For 60 minutes, though, their side didn't look capable of winning. They were devoid of ideas, their scrum was wobbly and they couldn't win a trick at the lineouts. But this was a generous Auckland, who regularly coughed up possession and allowed their cross-town rivals to stay in the match.

When Andrew Mailei scored under the bar in the 57th minute, from a Harbour move inside their own half that swept past Dowd and Wilson leaning even further out of their box, something changed. Harbour suddenly believed. They played with an intensity missing for so much of their Air New Zealand Cup campaign. They attacked the breakdowns with vigour, hit tackles with little thought for their own preservation, their scrum forced Auckland backwards and they played down the right areas of the park.

Even so, Auckland had a chance to win with the final possession of the match. They rumbled it up in sight of the posts in the hope of a penalty or dropped goal. Instead, Harbour were awarded a penalty for yet another infringement at the breakdown.

"We were waiting for the penalty to be given away or the drop kick to go over," said a clearly relieved Dowd. "We have had to deal with all the heartbreak in the last six weeks.

"We were feeling the pressure. It doesn't matter who you play for, if you lose six games on the trot, you feel the pressure. It wasn't good enough. "

The playoffs are probably beyond them but they have hurt Auckland's chances. Auckland would have moved into the top four with a win yesterday but now meet Tasman and Southland in the next fortnight.

"No urgency, no accuracy, a lack of ability to look after the ball," Auckland coach Mark Anscome lamented.

"I thought we were very poor. We beat ourselves. It exposed us in a lot of areas. The concern is that it's halfway through the competition and we are playing as badly as that."

The game was punctuated by errors and awful kicking. But its closeness, and being arguably New Zealand's only true derby, made it exciting.

Harbour deserved their win, only their sixth in 29 matches between the two unions. For Dowd and Wilson it was, as Statler and Waldorf would say, terrific, magnificent, brilliant, excellent...

Auckland 14 (P. Williams try, D Bowden 2 pens, A. Moeke pen) North Harbour 16 (A. Mailei try, M. Harris 3 pens, con). HT: 11-6.