September 4th 2004, a day etched in my and in the memory of every other proud North Harbour fan. A day in which those demi-gods in Maroon reigned supreme in the battle of the bridge, a day in which the arch nemesis of all things good and pure in the world triumphed. Now on the 13th of August, next Saturday night two titans will go head to head again, once again our heroes from North Harbour will have to perform a small miracle in order to be victorious over their greatest foe. Sadly depleted from last year due to the mysterious disappearance of such stars as Nick Evans, Hosea Gear, Rico Gear and Craig Newby to unions whose name my mouth will not stand to utter, they face an uphill task against the heathen from the blue and white blotch on our countries landscape. Such players as Rua Tipoki, Nick Williams and the majestic Luke McAlister (if released) will have to play like possessed demons in order to lift a team who are sadly looking far from the force they once were.

Since the date mentioned before I have been waiting for this, through a long monotonous summer helped along only by the light entertainment the black caps and potato cannons can produce. Through a winter of getting consistently smashed into the dirt by large and quite hostile football sides from around the city, and finally through the long arduous visions of watching a team full of arrogant pommies get utterly annihilated. Now it's here the NPC is back and what a way to kick off the season, the sworn blood-enemies one on one.

This is a game that will decide North Harbours season. A poor performance and the wheels will begin to fall off even before they have been properly connected. A victory and the confidence and euphoria surrounding such a victory should carry them through the competition. With a team raped and pillaged by such poachers as that sad excuse for a rugby union whose name need not be mentioned, they have their backs to the wall before they even start and facing an upstart pack of very large and very fast city slickers only pride will carry them through.

Here from the newly promoted mythical land of Counties only mere whispers of North Harbours chances reach my ears, instead I hear the cries of glee from my Auckland school mates and the mere thought of shutting me up after a year of torment following such an astounding performance a year ago. Once again the North Harbour versus the rest games are sparking up, this time rounds of Nutball become extremely painful as one after the other the halfwit Aucklanders unleash their anger. This year unfortunately I see my chances of a reprieve from this torture evaporating as one after another of Harbours heroic stalwarts is hunted down, by the rabid dogs some people have the misfortune to call rugby unions. The complete joke of North Harbours 4 top players jumping ship one after the other to head to increasingly powerful Big 5 unions is simply disgraceful, one glance at the Auckland salary bill from last season tells the simple story. The hoarding of players in order to prevent anyone else getting a slice of their pie, with the introduction of the new style of NPC and a salary cap hopefully such actions will cease.

Otago Don't Poach Players - Yeah Right

Harbour Hard

Chris (Scud)