KEY POINTS:
Fortune may just be about to smile on North Harbour.
After a stuttering, injury-ravaged campaign, Harbour finally discovered their try-scoring spark to run in six against lowly Bay of Plenty on Saturday night. That bonus-point win propelled them into eighth spot on the Air New Zealand Cup table and put them in pole position to claim the final play-off berth.
Now, for the first time this season, coach Wayne Pivac has been able to name the same side in consecutive weeks.
There is, of course, a caveat in that fullback George Pisi is carrying an injury that will be reassessed closer to game time.
Harbour and Taranaki head into the final round of the competition locked on 18 points but, by virtue of their round two win, Harbour hold the advantage in the event of a tiebreaker between the two teams.
That means Harbour could seal their play-off spot with a bonus point win over Southland in Albany tomorrow night.
However, with Southland riding a five-game winning streak and having the fourth-best defence in the competition, scoring the requisite four tries for the bonus point could be easier said than done.
"There is only one thing we can do and that is win our game," Pivac said.
"If that is good enough to get us through, then that is fantastic. But in terms of [the permutations], we'll just let the New Zealand Rugby Union and the media sort that out.
"We'll just be focusing on what we need to do to get the result. At halftime we'll reassess things and think about maybe changing the tactics and, if we think it is on to get that bonus point, then we'll certainly have a crack at it."
In contrast to Southland's winning streak, Harbour haven't managed consecutive wins this season.
"It is nice to be on a winning run and it is something we'd like to do ourselves," Pivac said.
The key to beating Southland would be achieving parity with their powerful, experienced pack.
"We'll certainly be trying to meet them up front. We have got to bar-up at scrum time and we've certainly got to make sure of our lineout functions so we can get a supply of ball to our backs.
"We will be looking to play our game. We won't change our tactics and look to play a 10-man game. We have got good players out wide and they started to get a bit of ball last week. We'd like to do the same this week."
