News

Harbour get a reality check

August 07 2009

North Harbour have gone from hero to zero in the space of week following their shock 19-15 defeat to Tasman in their Air New Zealand Cup clash in Albany on Friday.

Having pulled off an upset win over defending champions Canterbury in the opening round, North Harbour were brought back down to earth in front of their home fans - slumping to a two-tries-to-nill loss.

Tasman trailed 6-12 at the end of a dour first half, their points coming from penalties by Andrew Goodman and Matty James, while Michael Harris kept Harbour in front thanks to four successive shots at goal.

North Harbour played much of the half inside Tasman ground but could not find the key to the tryline. They had a superior line-out but spilled or turned the ball over just when they were building a head of steam up.

North Harbour coach Craig Dowd rolled his pair of aces out for the second half, injecting All Blacks backs Luke McAlister and Rudi Wulf into the mix.

But neither made could make much of an impact as North Harbour fell into a flat patch with their scrum losing ground to Tasman.

Sterling work by number eight Mark Bright and prop Ben Franks sparked the Tasman forwards into action. They gained parity in possession and held on longer to the ball to steadily clawed back ground lost to North Harbour.

After Harris landed his fifth penalty goal, it was Tasman who struck back when fullback Jack McPhee wasn't able to secure a high kick just outside the Harbour 22m area. From the ruck the ball emerged for wing Afeleki Pelenise to burst down the blindside where he fed full-back Robbie Malneek into space and he never looked like being hauled back.

After Malneek's try, Tasman came close to scoring again, but McAlister pulled off a superb tackle on Goodman, dropping the centre just centimetres from the tryline.

North Harbour simply could not find a way back into the game and Tasman's next try was built on a long passage of forward rushes which was rewarded when reserve prop Tristan Moran crashed over in the corner.

A Matty James penalty in the 78th minute sealed a fine win for Tasman who had lost their opening match of the competition 9-21 to Taranaki.

The scorers:

For North Harbour

Pens: Harris 5

For Tasman:

Tries: Malneek, Moran

Pens: Goodman, James

North Harbour: 15 Jack McPhee, 14 Anthony Tuitavake (c), 13 George Pisi, 12 Andrew Mailei, 11 Nafi Tuitavake, 10 Michael Harris, 9 Chris Smylie, 8 Viliame Ma'afu, 7 Robbie Colhoun, 6 Chris Smith, 5 Filo Paulo, 4 James King, 3 Ben Afeaki, 2 James Parsons, 1 Michael Reid.
Replacements: 16 Michael Mayhew, 17 James Afoa, 18Richard Mayhew, 19 Malakai Ravulo, 20 Matt France, 21 Luke McAlister, 22 Rudi Wulf.

Tasman: 15 Robbie Malneek, 14 Blair Cook, 13 Kade Poki, 12 Andrew Goodman (c),11 Afeleki Pelenise, 10 Matty James, 9 Kahn Fotuali'i, 8 Mark Bright, 7 Jonathan Poff, 6 Daniel Crichton, 5 Joe Wheeler, 4 Alex Ainley, 3 Ben Franks, 2 Daniel Perrin, 1 Zac Taulafo.
Replacements: 16 Quentin MacDonald, 17 Tristan Moran, 18 Daniel Hyatt, 19 Zane Winslade, 20 Shaun Begg, 21 Sione Holani, 22 James Kamana.

Referee: Ben Skeen