After coming home and kicking the cat and neighbour's youngest child once or twice, I felt reasonably composed enough to drink to forget the disaster which is - Harbour 2009.

Waking to my half-soaked Herald on Sunday with the headline - "Harbour Stay in Basement" only compounded my hangover, crappy personality and foul mood.

I am in agreement with other correspondents to a point, that is - we are playing some good rugby in parts and a great result is only just around the corner. The problem with these statements is that we are continuing to lose and thus eroding public sympathy and obvious team morale. Without results the pundit's kind words drift away only leaving us with next year's visits to Wanganui and Poverty Bay.

If a great result is on the horizon, sadly yesterday we moved away from that place in stunning fashion. Saturday was a new low and one of the worst performances since the 2006 abomination against Otago. This for those who were absent - "we got our pants dropped and bottom smacked" 56-21 in a gutless display to end all others.

Hawkes Bay started well and finished well, Harbour spluttered and misfired like my mate's old Morris Avenger on a cold August morning.

The Bay were unlucky not to have two tries in quick succession before the linesman ruled the second kick and chase a knock-on. Guilford's early try against the run of play nevertheless proved he is a brilliant footballer and one who has a bright future.

We pulled ourselves back into the game with a fortuitous try to Tuitavake but failed to use the strong breeze as Botica's kicking game of recent fixture's deserted him and left us struggling for field position and momentum. The backs were falling off tackles like a leper sheds his skin and this all indicated we maybe in for a tricky afternoon.

Halftime 10-5 to Hawkes Bay but the fans knew we had played poorly and without real intensity.

After the break we were hit again following an lineout and some poor defence to allow Giddens to score, replacement York hit back but we were then subjected to two decent Bay tries which reminded us that today was not going to be the day for redemption or much cause for potential optimism.

The game ended with a cruel twist which exposed everything about this flagging side. One of the larger forwards let it go through his legs which was fumbled by Ken Pisi and subsequently set up the final try not scored by us. This was the cue for the crowd to disperse and those few that care, wonder why and where this season left the rails and smashed into a solid surface.

Full-time 34-17.

I don't know why we are as low as last place but there needs to be some soul-searching starting with the people who select the side and select the coaches, manager and hangers-on. If those hangers-on do something of benefit is it not to do with rugby, North Harbour or life in general.

If the manager controls the substitutions then don't substitute your starting hooker when you have the only decent attacking line-out of the game. Bringing on some no-name while we are on attack will only end in disaster - as it did. Very poor.

We lack true passion, intensity and direction to make an impact on this year's competition. These are very hard values to teach and must come from within. Let's hope we can discover some of this before Auckland maul us to death in the Colosseum of Scum next week.

My last parting thought is to Sensible Alistair. You have got the wrong end of the stick - selecting Takapuna players was merely a metaphor for getting the right people for the job who have big game experience. Putting Senior players with those younger ones is a proven recipe for success, its one we need to find and soon.