Rugby: Bright spots shine through

By Wynne Gray

While both coaches were bemoaning their sides' lack of quality rugby, a checklist on Auckland and Northland offered them some succour for the remainder of the NPC.

Auckland have yet to concede a try in two games, though they were lucky on at least one occasion in their 31-6 win over Northland on Saturday when Jason Hita failed to hold an inpass from flanker Alan Tubbs with Auckland's defences in ruins.

Several individual performances shone out for Auckland. In the lineout Leo Lafaiali'i was a masterful force on his own ball and disrupted a number of Northland throws, while Dylan Mika offered a powerful return after injury.

In the late absence of the slightly hamstrung Eroni Clarke, midfielder Craig Innes marshalled the defence superbly and still had time for an intercept and 70m dash to the tryline.

Another with great dash was Doug Howlett, this week on the wing, where he showed the versatility, poise and speed which offer him and his province a flourishing future.

And there was a bonus point for four tries, one offering for coach Wayne Pivac to feel warm about.

Northland had a scrum solid enough to test the home side and on occasions they got a useful drive going, while their backs were a capable support crew.

But poor handling was Northland's problem on a day when heavy rain had left a very slippery Eden Park surface.

They look a team of first division organisation, but one who need an ounce of luck, a stronger group of reserves and a shade more skill to crack their losing streak.

Injuries do not help. Halfback Sam Pinder cracked his collarbone, so the search is on for a replacement. Auckland lost hooker Paul Mitchell with a badly gashed cheek, an incident some of his team-mates felt deserved some censure.

"We were not happy with the entire 80 minutes, we wanted a good start but never got into the game," said Pivac.

New captain Paul Thomson felt the preparation had not been as thorough as it should have been. That had been the fault of individuals rather than the staff.

Northland coach Bryce Woodward put the pressure on his first five-eighths Tony Monaghan to control the match with his boot, but was disappointed with the response.

The visitors had hung in, only 6-12 adrift until just on the break when Innes intercepted a promising Northland raid and that was the match.

It was an even muckier second half. Charles Reichelmann scored after the referee looked to have missed a blatant knock forward and in the final minutes Iliesa Tanivula scored when Northland messed up an attack near their own goal-line.