Waikato cruise into top six, but things get tougher from here

Richard Kahui stole the limelight, scoring three of Waikato's six tries. File picture

Waikato 42 Northland 21

With stage one safely negotiated, Waikato are gearing themselves for a significant step up in the next three weeks of the national championship.

They had secured top spot in pool B 15 minutes into the second half of their easy win over Northland in Hamilton and even when down to 14 men, after Stephen Donald was sent off three minutes into the second half, they were doing it without breaking much sweat.

But things are about to change for the teams in the top-six playoffs.

"We're winning without putting together a perfect performance," hooker Tom Willis said.

"That's not a bad thing, but when we come up against the supposedly stronger sides we're going to have to sharpen up."

Getting two home games in the top-six section of the Air New Zealand Cup is handy, not only in terms of playing before their faithful at Waikato Stadium, but also for the union's cash box.

Last season Waikato flattered to deceive, at one point losing five games on the bounce. Willis wasn't there, taking time to recover from a long-term back injury. But the former All Black has detected plenty of desire to make amends this time round.

"There's a pretty healthy resolve within the team to do things better than last year. A number of the guys were here and probably felt they underachieved," Willis said.

"Combine that with some guys who've come back into the team who weren't there last year, and a healthy dose of enthusiastic and talented players coming through, and it makes for a team who want to do well.

"But obviously that doesn't mean you're going to, and we've got some hard work to do."

Waikato have a core of young players catching the eye, including halfback Brendon Leonard, lock Toby Lynn and versatile backs Dwayne Sweeney and Richard Kahui. All were good value on Saturday.

Kahui stole the limelight, snaffling three of Waikato's six tries. The first, after only 45s, was set up by Sweeney; he nabbed a second, cutting back onto a short pass from David Hill; and bagged the third intercepting a witless Daniel Bowden pass. Hill's peerless goalkicking, six from six, was the icing on a performance which gave Waikato the ideal lead-in to the top six.

The only blemish was Donald's dismissal, the first in the top flight since Jerry Collins got an early shower for Wellington against Southland in 2004.

Donald had caught his opposing first five-eighths David Holwell with a reflex high tackle in the first half, which earned a yellow card.

So when he jumped high and scragged No 8 Jake Paringatai, even though it had no effect on the impressive Paringatai, referee Keith Brown had little option.

"It was a fair enough call," Waikato coach Warren Gatland said, adding there was no malice in either tackle.

"I hope the sending off is enough of a sanction and hopefully he's not going to get more time off."

As so often in these situations, the team one man down grew an extra leg, as Willis put it, and it was "all hands to the pump".

"Everyone responded pretty well. We knew we had to work damn hard," he said.

Northland, who were 21-9 down at that point and still in the contest, were simply not good enough to use their numerical edge to their advantage.

"It was as though we'd lost a man," Northland coach Mark Anscombe said.

Their task in the repechage, where all teams start on 0 points, is to nab one of the two quarter-final spots on offer.

"We start from scratch and we want to be in there. We've got to put in the hard work, play with belief and trust in ourselves," Holwell said.