Rugby: Harbour turn up the froth for fans

Filo Paulo of North Harbour. Photo / Getty Images

How do you want your footy? Warm, frothy and in the afternoon?

Then Albany was the place to be yesterday as North Harbour careered round their home track for a 44-30 victory against a plucky but under-powered Manawatu.

Only 3100 turned up to watch this ITM Cup match between two of the least-resourced and successful sides in the competition.

That in-house crowd got some value for money though as they watched a nine-try smorgasbord including a hat-trick in 12 minutes for Harbour's massive No 8 Mathew Luamanu.

"He has all the potential, he could go a long way," said coach Craig Dowd. "When I signed him from Wellington I knew this kid was something special. He showed with one of his tries that he has outstanding speed for a big man.

"In a different era you could put him on the wing and call him Jonah. He is a good player, very keen, really coachable."

For most of the season the former NZ under-20 representative has been used at blindside but yesterday's positional switch brought a change of fortune for the 123kg loose forward. Not that he began too impressively.

His counter-attack pass was intercepted by impressive Manawatu No 8 Hamish Gosling who ran 50m for the try which had the visitors leading after the first quarter.

The next period of the game however, belonged to Luamanu. He opened his personal account with an unimpeded run from a lineout win, bashed across from close-range for the next then ran 35m off an inside ball from Anthony Boric.

That brought a 31-11 halftime margin as Manawatu looked out on their feet and out of resources.

Coach Dave Rennie was an angry man in his dressing room chat. But he felt Harbour were tired and could be exploited. "Without the ball we were not good enough and conceded the softest try in the world," he said referring to one of Luamanu's touchdowns.

Manawatu were battling because of injuries in their loose forwards and inside backs, but Rennie looked forward to the return of All Black five-eighths Aaron Cruden and several others due back in the next round.

Post match there was no great celebration from Harbour either. As Dowd said they had claimed the bonus point win but made far too many errors to be content.

"But it is a springboard, a small step towards our next game with Counties Manukau, it has given us a bit of momentum."

Harbour got some serious value from first five-eighths Michael Harris who put in a strong shift and goaled six from seven kicks, young wing Nafi Tuitavake, flanker Tom Chamberlain and bustling hooker James Parsons.

Halfway through the second spell Manawatu clawed back to 34-23 before Harbour pressed the foot to the floor again.

"Some of the stuff we constructed was really good, at times our attack was near-on outstanding but then there were the errors again," Dowd said. "If we take that out of our game we will be a half decent side.

"We are trying to play too much rugby and shovelling crap really."