'Debate' about North Harbour's relevance
03 August 2010

Doing some intensive research over several glasses of whisky and whilst waiting for freeones.com to load, I discovered another story contributing to the 'debate' about North Harbour's relevance from - come on, have you guessed yet? - The Auckland Herald on Sunday. (Paul Lewis: Bridge still great divide). Maybe this is the 'debate' to which Cleaver referred in yesterday's paper. One Herald writer answering another Herald writer so that another again writer could mention it. (Kind of like, for example, when journos interview one witness to someone's drunken behavior. The witness says that the drunks behaviour is "shocking", and the headline the next day reads DRUNK SHOCKS BYSTANDERS. The follow-up story the following day will then throw in something like, 'Bystanders were horrified by the drunken antics' and before you know it, we've got a 'debate' about public drunkenness. Meanwhile, Woodward and Bernstein take another valium.)

Anyhoo, this guy's actually more our kind of fellow: a healthy realist not afraid to sling a few arrows but also willing to acknowledge the benefits. Well, maybe just one benefit:

By most measures, the union hasn't been a success. Except for one thing and two words: Frank Bunce.

Which got me considering some other Harbour players who might have never become ABs - or perhaps even Auckland players - were it not for our union. Osborne (uncultured larrikin from Wanganui) over Shane Howarth (Auckland Grammar Old Boy)? No chance. Though he might have snuck in through Wellington or some other big union, chances are it'd have been more of the Shane until Cullen arrived. Walter Little (Tokoroa, Hato Petera, Glenfield) over Bernie McCahill? It took Laurie Mains to see commonsense after, let's see now, who was it who didn't think Walter was up to it? Oh yeah, John Hart - coach of Auckland in the late-80s and the Abs until the end of '91. Eric Rush (via Kaeo, Tangaroa College, and the side of the scrum)? After fluffing around as a part-timer with Hart's Auckland side, it took Thorbs to suggest he was better off as a winger, especially as Michael 'Incomparable' Jones and Mark 'Incomparably Average but Beloved of Hart' Carter were his competition, scumside of the Bridge.. We could probably add to those names like Blair Larsen and Graham Dowd in those early days of multi-positional utilities. In fact, apart from Buck and Cock 'o Wood, would any of the chaps we now know as Harbour's ABs have got a sniff?

By the way, I heard the other day that Harbour has the 5th-most registered rugby players of any union in the country.