North Harbour vs Bay of Plenty Rotorua International Stadium, Rotorua 4:35pm, Sunday 29 August 2010
29	39
Tries: J Tarrant, A Boric, J Parsons, N Tuitavake Cons: L McAlister, Mike Harris (2) Pen: Mike Harris	Tries: L Masaga (3), P Burleigh, L Braid, L MacDonald Cons: M Delany (3) Pens: M Delany
Halftime: 12 - 20

A typically high scoring affair sadly became another fruitless experience, with Harbour once again coming up short in Vegas.

The early signs were ominous, with the cross-bar falling from the posts and almost killing poor old Luamanu who was residing beneath it. We can take from this that the International Stadium at Rotorua is a little short of RWC compliance. In short the groundsman needs to be gassed.

The game was generally an error-ridden match where I swear most of the participants had their hands surgically removed prior to the start.

It was a bit tit-for-tat through-out but the difference was Masaga who scored 3 tries in the second-half to effectively extinguish any chance of a late come-back.

Smylie played very well I thought and a few kept their own sound form going, most notably Parsons, Chamberlain and Tuitavake the Younger.

We keep saying it - we play well in patches when we put our collective minds to it but we drift off like some vacant pot-head only to resurface with a flash of brilliance, then we are gone again, etc.

If we could just stick to a gameplan and play together we would do a lot better, I am absolutely convinced of this. We have too many people playing as individuals and McAlister for my mind just tried too hard. I know Henry was in the stand tentatively looking at the stadium roof in case a errant girder might hit him in the temple - but he just needed to play it simple. Carter doesn't take to the line every 5 seconds, pop-pass when it is not on and throw passes to nowhere - just play the game in front of you.

To my mind R Mayhew, McPhee and the large winger offer very little. They are not going to improve Dowd and need to be removed. Our midfield is displaying more holes than a flash French colander and this needs to be sorted prior to the arrival of the Mooloos who usually smash us into oblivion.

I have been watching this team for 25 years and I know it is a different era but the last three years of absolute mediocrity looks set to continue for at least another season. Our failures are continually repeated like a Home and Away omnibus on a Sunday morning.

I will always support Harbour but crikey it is hard and it just keeps getting harder.