Rugby: Harbour win on a night of surprises

North Harbour's Rudi Wulf keeps going despite being tackled. Photo / Getty Images

Air NZ Cup
North Harbour 28
Bay of Plenty 7

North Harbour gave a sense of what might have been last night by dusting off the Bay of Plenty in barely half an hour.

The win did little for Harbour's immediate fate - they will still end the season wallowing near the basement - but it did at least allow them to think optimistically about 2010.

It was a happily married man coming out of the closet sort of performance. There was no inkling such a revelation could be in the offing and the whole thing was rather hard to take in. Harbour as enthusiastic but bumbling has been the story of the season. Not Harbour as clinical, ruthless and, at times, really quite impressive. But that's what they were.

The forwards set their ice creams on the wall, put their mucky play clothes on and set about their business fully aware they had a full 80-minute shift.

Not only was there industry and aggression, there was a previously unseen street-smartness to their dealings at the collision. The real highlight of their work, though, was the fluidity and accuracy they pulled off in moving the ball out of the tackle.

There were numbers on hand around the ball carrier and that was the key to Harbour scoring three first-half tries that put the Bay in the dog box.

The first was created by lock James King who was able to flip a pass wide on the right to the looping Nafu Tuigamala who held his line, hinted at the inside pass and found he was stumbling over the tryline.

Luke McAlister scored the second when he followed the ball through some neat passing around the ruck and took an inside pass to run clear between the sticks.

With halftime approaching, Tuigamala scored again when Jack McPhee and Filo Paulo swapped passes and put the little halfback in the clear.

That left Harbour 25-0 up at the break and the Bay were wondering what on earth had happened.

They had come to Auckland for four points, five if they got everything right. A win last night and they would be in a handy place to surge for the playoffs with Manawatu and Taranaki to come. But they forgot to play.

Just as Harbour were a surprise, so too were the Bay. The cohesion had gone. The forwards couldn't get on the front foot and the backs were lateral and clumsy. If it hadn't been for the heroic efforts of Mike Delany and Colin Bourke, the Steamers could have been staring at a scoreboard nasty.

Delany made three breaks from deep where he showed strength and pace to beat the first tackles and then stunning awareness. He also pulled off an outrageous, over-his-head pass that was a sign of his confidence. No wonder the Blues were keen to have him, yet it is just as easy to see why Delany stayed with the Chiefs - in this form, he must fancy his chances of nudging Stephen Donald out of the No 10 jersey.

Bourke was the only Steamers' forward to see the need to drive low and hard when in possession. He looks as fit as he's ever been and his pace out of the boot had Harbour scrambling.

Well, it had them scrambling in the second half when the Bay finally pulled finger and held on to the ball and resembled, albeit not convincingly, a side with playoff potential.

It was too little too late, though, and Harbour's defence was up to the job, except when Delany came at them.

The Bay will now have to wait and see. Their fate could yet be decided by results elsewhere and they will be dirty, or at least they should be dirty, at the meek way they blew much of their enterprise and hard work of the earlier part of the season.

As for Harbour, they are playing to make themselves feel good about next season. This performance will be the one they will come back to over the summer months. When they are slogging it out pre-season, gasping for breath on Bethells Beach's sand-dunes, thoughts will return to October 10.

That was the night they showed they were good enough; that with the right mental application, some belief and all-out commitment, they can win games.

North Harbour 28 (N. Tuigamala 2, L. McAlister tries; M. Harris 3 pens, 2 cons), Bay of Plenty 7 (C. Retallick try; M. Delany con). Halftime: 25-0.