KEY POINTS:
AIR NZ CUP
Counties 28 North Harbour 57
It's hard to fathom, when the rugby was as entertaining as it was at Mt Smart yesterday, why the Air New Zealand Cup is proving such a turn-off.
It's even harder to determine just why Counties and Harbour reached this stage of the season without any hope of making the playoffs.
Harbour especially, who carried on from where they left off in the second half last week against Auckland, looked a side with potential to knock over some bigger boys.
They were helped enormously by the return of Anthony Tuitavake in the midfield and Rudi Wulf on the wing - both All Blacks gave their backline some structure and potency that has been missing.
Tuitavake showed he is suffering no ill-effects from his broken cheek, scoring an 80-metre try in the closing stages where Counties' defenders were being bounced around like they were in a pin-ball game.
And they were also helped by a strong tactical performance from Jimmy Gopperth. The first five has committed to the region now and he nudged the ball behind Counties and picked wisely when to run and when to pass. His goal-kicking was pretty handy, too, and he ended the game with 27 points.
The former Hurricane was intriguingly lining up against Tasesa Lavea, a former Blues man who is in the frame to return to his old franchise. It would be pushing it to call it a trial between the two, but Blues coach Pat Lam will have been a fascinated spectator.
Lavea played as well as he has all year, even backing himself to take the gap at times and he orchestrated what was a supremely effective Counties back division.
The home side scored some memorable tries, offloading out of contact quite deliciously and running some clever support lines.
Lelia Masaga showed up well, using that incredible pace and swerve of his to cut a swathe through the Harbour ranks every time he was on the ball. The Chiefs man would have been acutely aware that this was his last chance to put a marker down for higher honours.
All Black coach Graham Henry says he has just about finalised his end-of-year squad and will take four wingers. If Masaga is not currently pencilled in, he did enough to at least force the selectors into mentioning his name when they hook up this week.
And, given that Henry has been at pains to stress that it is a priority for them to find a specialist openside to back up Richie McCaw, they could do worse than to seek out some video footage of Counties' DJ Forbes.
The captain of the national sevens team is quick, strong and has good instincts. He covered a lot of ground yesterday and played close to the ball, which wasn't easy given the frenetic pace of the game.
Harbour broke things open and put daylight between the teams midway through the second half when first Tuitavake barged over from close range and then two minutes later, Gopperth gathered his own chip over the top to cruise in at the corner.
That double blow shook Counties. They did manage to regroup and riposte with the try of the game that saw some great support work from the loose forwards, who finally worked Forbes under the sticks.
But Harbour were in their stride by then and they tries started to flow.
It can't be overlooked that the catalyst for such enterprising football was the fact both teams had nothing to play for. Harbour especially have to be asking questions about why they left their best performance until it was too late.
Counties 28 (S. Stowers, T. Palelei, DJ Forbes, L. Masaga tries; D. Cummins 3 cons; K. Koiatu con) Harbour 57 (J. Afoa, A. Boric, A. Tuitavake (2), J. Gopperth (2), N. Tuitavake (2) tries; J. Gopperth 7 cons, pen).
