KEY POINTS:
Corey Tamou thought he had done his chips. Especially after the 27-year-old Northland halfback started the season as part of the New Zealand Maori team last year, but finished it playing fullback for the Northland development side.
Things had obviously gone haywire somewhere in between winning the Churchill Cup with the Maori team and getting overlooked for the provincial campaign.
But it looks like Tamou is bouncing back. Reinstated in the starting team, Tamou is slowly rebuilding his reputation in a Northland side that is making rapid strides this season.
But he is still wary. The pain of non-selection last season still burns, so he is not about to start revelling in his new status just yet. As he knows, his coaches are watching his every move very closely.
"It is a bit of a funny thing. I wasn't too sure where I stood at the beginning of the season but I chipped away and chipped away in the club season," Tamou said.
"I was lucky enough to get an opportunity in pre-season matches and managed to play all right and got the nod. I am enjoying just being involved and, obviously, playing. I mean, that's why you do all this training."
Named to start at halfback again tonight in an intriguing match against Tasman, Tamou is preparing himself for a tough day out.
Tasman arrive with a reputation as a counter-attacking force, a side loaded with speedy backs who are rated as the best opportunists in the competition.
They have scored seven tries so far this season, and six of them have been from unexpected turnovers, intercepts and miscued kicks.
For the third week running Northland coach Mark Anscombe has underlined his reliance on his experienced players.
Despite several of his first-pick side carrying niggly injuries and prolonged after-effects of a rough opening to the representative campaign, the starting team is basically unchanged.
Props Bronson Murray and Tevita Mailau rotate starting roles and winger Glenn Martin was only overlooked in favour of Fetu Vainikolo after being hospitalised with appendicitis on Friday.
It is a gamble on the resilience of Anscombe's elder statesmen like David Holwell, Tony Coughlan and Hayden Taylor that needs to pay dividends - as does the ongoing experiment at centre with Tony Koonwaiyou, while Josh Levi and Leo Taliu wait on the reserves bench.
