Rugby: Favourites too slick for Harbour

By WYNNE GRAY

CANTERBURY 31 NORTH HARBOUR 3

North Harbour travelled half the country to get a rugby lesson last night.

After being the masters in their opening NPC game against Counties Manukau, Harbour played like students against Canterbury in the type of erratic pattern which has laced the union's history.

Instead of adjusting their game to deal with the soggy conditions, Harbour began as if they were playing in the high veld on a blazing hot afternoon.

They were not about to discard their adventure because of the tropical downpours which had hit Christchurch for much of the day.

When they finally recognised midway through the second half that they had to mix up their tactics, retain possession and keep the ball tight to gain some territory, they applied some serious pressure.

Several tap penalties nearly got Harbour across the line but Canterbury's impressive defence could not be breached.

Without their swag of All Blacks and after their loss to Wellington last week, Canterbury regrouped solidly with strong performances from newer players like Derek Maisey, Sam Broomhall, Johnny Leo'o and Sean Cuttance.

The steadiness of others like Mark Mayerhofler, Daryl Gibson, Dave Hewett, Con Barrell and Dallas Seymour held their younger teammates together. And after some defensive lapses last week, the Canterbury tackling screens were superb.

It was an ominous reminder to the rest of the country about Canterbury's rugby reserves and their capacity to deal with adversity.

Initial forays from Mark Robinson, Aisea Tuilevu and Walter Little looked sharp for Harbour and they won an early penalty which Marc Ellis kicked.

Another likely attack cost Harbour though, when the ball was lost in a tackle and Caleb Ralph was freed on the left wing for a 50m run to the line and the splashdown.

Harbour's promise evaporated even further as the Canterbury pack began to click into their wet-weather formula.

They drove strongly from lineouts, forced errors with their powerful scrummaging and played better percentage rugby.

Their composure contrasted strongly with Harbour's exotic style, which looked flashy but inevitably, in the dreary conditions, fell apart.

They forced Harbour to infringe in search of some possession and Ben Blair kicked three from four penalty attempts in the first half to give his side a 16-3 lead at the interval.

They extended that with a Mayerhofler try when Harbour fluffed an up-and-under.

That looked like being the only second-half touchdown until the final scrum when former Harbour halfback and a replacement for Canterbury Billy Fulton scored from a neat blindside switch.

Harbour will next play Otago at home while Canterbury lost Counties Manukau before they get their All Blacks back from South Africa.

Canterbury 31(C. Ralph, M. Mayerhofler, B. Fulton tries; B. Blair, 4 pen, 2 con) North Harbour 3 (M. Ellis, pen). Halftime: 16-3.