North Harbour vs Canterbury AMI Stadium, Christchurch 7:35pm, Friday 13 August 2010
22	44
Tries: M Harris, J Tarrant, J York Cons: M Harris, B Botica Pen: M Harris	Tries: R Fruean (3), S Monaghan, M Todd, T Veainu, I Ross Cons: C Slade (3) Pen: C Slade
Halftime: 10 - 22

Christchurch.org.nz...
"Christchurch embraces a lifestyle of dynamic business and education, rich art and culture, exciting cuisines and world-class wines. No matter what you’re looking for, you can find it in this world class city".

Harbourrugby.com...
"Christchurch is a bit average, it embraces a highly refined level of racial intolerance and scores of elderly, heat-pumps and disaffected youth. No matter what you are looking for your won't find it here".

Sadly they are quite good at rugby which hurts.

Overview:

Both teams were coming off one point wins and I suppose from a Harbour point of view we were keen to build on what was a good, grinding win against our weed-toting cousins from the north. Unfortunately it was another step back towards the abyss, as we failed to keep control of the football, were average at the break-down and the line-out was a complete shambles.

The Game:

We started well showing a bit of speed and style with a great opening try to Harris. Tarrant and York both took their tries well but that's where we pretty much ended our match. The Cantabs woke up out of their slumber and gave us a few quick slaps to extinguish any hope of a bonus point or two. Fruean looked especially classy, apparently he has a dodgy ticker - crap, I'll take that any day over some of our more questionable brethren.

Again there were some positives, good start, when we were patient with the ball we looked quite exciting but the trick is to do it consistently and for approx. 80 mins.

Going to Lancaster Park is always crap (apart from the Shield) and they are an exceptional union, we needed to be more than just active participants which on the basis of last night's effort was about all we were.

Cutting View Point:

I am a little concerned about the constant, seemingly wholesale changes we make at hooker, half-back and first-five. I just think we should try and pick a team and keep it. For what ever unknown reason we seem to always sub our hooker at line-out time and/or on defence. Surely he is better off entering the fray at scrum time or the like in order to get him a bit of action.

Quite simply we were outclassed by a superior opposition. They toyed with us playfully before stepping it up a notch in the last 4-5 mins to put on a quick 12 points. Game over.

Review:

Next week's game v Otago is shaping up to be a must win, a loss on Thursday will effectively end our season. Dowdy we are off the pace my old buddy, everyone says you are a good coach, let's see something decent...