KEY POINTS:
North Harbour 19
Counties Manukau 13
Its glory days might be behind it but it's hard to argue with the national rugby championship's ability to showcase emerging talent.
Certainly there was plenty on display when a youthful North Harbour side withstood a furious late charge by Taranaki to
retain the Ranfurly Shield.
Harbour's young front row of James Afoa, Ben Afeaki and Tom McCartney more than held their own against Super 14 veterans Tony Penn and Andrew Hore, but the real standout was openside flanker Tom Chamberlain.
Called into the side in place of the suspended Rob Colhoun, the 20-year-old from the Marist club introduced himself to the Taranaki backline with a brace of stinging hits in the opening five minutes.
And, while his debut might not quite have been the stuff of comic books, he did claim an errant Taranaki lineout throw and fire a pinpoint dive-pass to Tusi Pisi that allowed the first-five-eighths to send centre Anthony Tuitavake over for the holder's only try.
Having played just 10 minutes of last week's draw against Northland, Chamberlain was called upon to play the full 80 on Saturday.
After successfully repelling a succession of Taranaki lineout drives in the closing stages, Harbour captain Nick Williams trudged into the post-match press conference looking like he'd just been run over by a bus.
By comparison, the rangy Chamberlain looked more than capable of doing a few laps around the stadium carpark to round out his night.
"All the boys were feeling a bit tired out there after that last 20," Williams said. "But we showed a bit of heart out there."
They needed to.
Having looked more threatening and purposeful throughout as they edged steadily in front, thanks to Tuitavake's try and some solid goalkicking from Jack McPhee and replacement Michael Harris, Harbour were in position to kill off the match after 60 minutes.
They looked to have done it when wing Viliame Waqaseduadua seized on a loose Taranaki pass and raced clear, only for what would have been a certain try to be ruled out for what looked a questionable infringement by Williams in the build-up.
From the resulting penalty, Taranaki kicked for the corner and mauled their way over the Harbour line only to be denied a try by the desperate Chamberlain, who cleverly wrapped up the ball to prevent the grounding.
It was a brief respite for Harbour, though, with Williams losing the ball in contact close to his line, allowing Taranaki blindside Raymond Stark to cross for a simple try that brought the challengers within a converted try of lifting the Shield with 13 minutes still on the clock.
Having failed to produce anything like a try-scoring opportunity through their backline, Taranaki resorted to the tried and tested, engineering a succession of close-range lineout drives as the clock ticked down.
Time and again they were repelled by the resolute Harbour pack as Williams rallied his troops impressively.
