Northland 35
North Harbour 24
KEY POINTS:
Many of the hoard of Northland fans who travelled to the North Shore to watch their team play what will likely be their third-last game in the top flight were wearing T-shirts bearing the slogan: "Save the Taniwha, Stop the Drop."
They should have brought 22 more with
them for Harbour's players. From the 14-point advantage they gifted the visitors inside the first 10 minutes, to the limp second-half defensive display, Harbour certainly did their bit for the Taniwha's cause.
Northland have their date with fate on Thursday, when the NZRU will almost certainly chop them from next year's 12-team competition. But they will most certainly argue the rankings used to exclude them are nonsense.
That ranking system placed Harbour fourth and Northland 13th of the current 14 teams, numbers that bear little relation to the current state of the unions' representative teams.
Neither side was that flash yesterday. Neither could claim to be in the upper echelon of a competition of questionable standard. But to suggest a gulf of nine places between them is ridiculous.
Northland have been an administrative basket case in recent years - right up to calling for two teams to be cut without first checking to see if they might be one. And Harbour have clearly done a lot of things right in areas such as player development and infrastructure building, which make up two of the key criteria used to assess the unions.
But that off-field disparity has seemingly done little to affect the on-field product. Both teams missed the playoffs last year and both will likely miss them again this year.
Both teams can score the odd eye-catching try but do a fair impression of jelly in defence, being soft, wobbly and of little substance.
Northland's on-loan hooker, Francis Smith, scored the first two tries of his hat-trick before many spectators had even found their seats.
His opposite, James Hinchco, compounded Harbour's early woes by getting sent to the sin bin for punching.
But Harbour fought back with three tries in the final 10 minutes of the half - two with Northland wing Fetu'u Vainikolo in the bin for a shoulder charge - to lead 19-14 at the break.
Fullback Jack McPhee provided two of the tries, while halfback Chris Smylie snuck over for the third.
Smith's third, from close range, put Northland back in front, and a sizzling 50m effort from Rene Ranger had them back in control.
Wing Josh York scored Harbour's fourth but Jimmy Gopperth had an off-day with the boot, missing a second conversion to go with two failed penalty attempts to leave his side trailing by four.
Harbour were still in with a chance, but Northland second five-eighths Derek Carpenter snuffed them out with a clean break from a scrum on the 22 seven minutes from the end.
The result saw Northland leap-frog Harbour and claim 11th spot, while Harbour dropped to 12th and are now in need of a minor miracle to make the quarter-finals.
With Harbour hosting the Battle of the Bridge on Saturday, coach Wayne Pivac confirmed his side would look to play spoilers and dent their Blues rivals' playoff hopes.
"If the eight is out of the way then we need to make sure we finish strongly and, yeah, make someone else's changing room feel like ours does at the moment," Pivac said.
"If you want to make the Blues, it is a game you need to play well in. There are a lot of individual contracts on the line, I'd imagine."
The chance to make a point ahead of Thursday's NZRU board meeting hadn't been a factor in his side's display, Northland captain Justin Collins said.
But playing footy might not much longer be the only job for many of these Northlanders. On this evidence, however, a good few of them should probably end up playing for Harbour.
