North Harbour 33 Northland 26
These teams might be located at the top of the country but have rarely been on top of their game in 2011. It was 13th vs 14th and both sides had nothing to lose - no hope of making the championship final - which resulted in an open contest.
Harbour led 20-12 early in the second half before a Northland fightback saw them take a 26-24 lead inside the last 20 minutes. But the home side responded immediately - and aided by Ben Botica's perfect seven from seven kicking game - held on for just their second win of the season.
Northland have been around the bottom three all year, and strangely for the Taniwha have scored the fewest tries (just 14 in seven games before this clash) across the competition. North Harbour has had no problem finding the tryline, but concede more. As a consolation, this match also featured the two best goalkickers in the competition. Lachie Munro came into this match with 82 per cent accuracy, while Botica had kicked at 84 per cent.
After Munro had notched two early penalties, North Harbour responded with a clever try to Willie Walker after some repeat phase play down the right flank.
