Noth Harbour win was lucky or just plain determination not to quit?
9 August 2010

If the final whistle on Sunday confirmed North Harbour's win against Northland is it fair to say that it was a lucky win or should we be saying that we got a glimpse of the true colours of this North Harbour side?

What I mean by the true colours is that this team is one that just won't give up no matter how unlikely the chances are to turn a game around or win from far behind. To say that for 80 mins of the game I pissed and moaned about the quality of the play for North Harbour is an understatement. That said I could not fault their attitude for just hanging in by the skin of their teeth.

Lets face it, the the number of break outs by the Northland backline was reminisant of a German Panzer Division at the Bulge. Time and again the combination of Munro, Payne and Ranger carved a way out and through the Harbour backline to attack with pace and power to threaten the heart of the North Harbour defence and yet time and again the Harbour defence hung on like a bunch of Sherman tanks facing the charging Panzers.

If McPhee was a general he would be deemed to be brilliant yet lucky at the same time. The number of last ditch tackles, scrags and general body contacts he put in was testiment to the attitude of the whole team. Far from pretty and far from entertaining North Harbour just would not go away. With McAlister battering his way into the Northland defence in the second half and the forwards starting to be able to put phases together for good spells it seemed that frustration seemed to get the better of Northland rather than any kind of fear in the quality of North Harbours attacks.

Whilst the forwards had struggled all day to deal with the physical aspect of Northlands play and Chamberlain having more than an off day at the office, it was amazing that they still believed at the end of 80 minutes that they could go through that number of phases to give Botica a chance for glory. Luamanu and King having to be replaced was a blow to the pack but the replacements stood up and did their best. Filo Pastry was tougher than usual, more like a short crust pastry, and I thought that Richard Mayhew fronted up with a decent performance (did I just say that?). [Editor: yes you did, but I happen to agree]

What eventuated was that North Harbour delivered a hammer blow to Northland deep into injury time and subsequently won a game that for all who had watched it, had no right to win. Yet they did, and they came away with four points and a belief that should they stick together, get their best players back and work hard to make many aspects of their game, much much better, then maybe, just maybe they can put a few wins together and be competetive this season. With some teams spending lots of money to push for a top seven finish how nice would it be to think that North Harbour might just be able to cause some of those teams to spend some time with them in tier two next season.

Mairangi Murray from the terraces!