North Harbour vs Northland North Harbour Stadium, Albany 5:35pm, Saturday 20 August 2011
33	26
Try: W Walker, D Raikuna, M Luamanu Con: B Botica (3) Pens: B Botica (4)	Tries: C Goodhue, B Heem Cons: L Munroe (2) Pen: L Munroe (4)
Halftime: 13 - 12

Amazing what can happen when you leave your best players on for eighty minutes. Novel f*cking idea that.

I know, I know. It's a much more physical game these days and the bench is important blahdy f*cking blah, but Matt Luamanu is Harbour. I don't mean that as an insult, either. He's not the Harbour that gives away 40 points a game or drops their nuts at crucial moments or gets on the wrong side of critical 50-50 calls 95% of the time. He's the Harbour master. The beating heart of a team whose other organs have gone into shutdown for big parts of this season. Three things he did in the second half turned this game: a ball carry into one of their try-scorers that might well be Smashed 'em Bro of the Week (and who was then kneed in the head by his own player and carried off), a fend on one of their props that let them know we were up for a bit of grit, and the try - a mighty two-fingered salute right at the moment when Northland (and us) thought that the game had gone.

We still tackled like mud at times. Rudy missed a clanger to let them in for what we all thought was the winner, though I think he might have pulled off a gem of a save too, when their lad stretched out for the line and had the ball fleetingly knocked out of his control. Also, our pack was too often too slow to the break down, leaving Luamanu and King isolated. Fortunately, this new rule about the tackler rolling away is as equally mystifying to players trying to effect a turnover as it is to every other c*nt watching, so whenever it looked like a team should've been penalized for holding on to the ball, the penalty actually ended up going the other way. I think we benefited from this eight times to Northland's five. Score!

However, what I also saw in this game was a bit of passion. A bit of desire. There were lads in those last ten minutes throwing everything on the line, to the extent that one of our forwards even stuck in a bit of rucking which made a few people around me say 'Oooh, that's a bit rough…' before remembering that rucking used to be one of the best and most distinctive parts of rugby union, and silently berating themselves for going a bit soft.

The distinguishing feature of this game was that even the players who didn't play especially well managed to contribute. Bots took a few too many wrong options with his passing but also made good yards when he ran at the line; the front row looked shakier in set pieces but stronger with the ball in hand; Raikuna went missing for long periods but produced a couple of bits of magic when it mattered. I think we all breathed a collective sigh of relief when the final whistle blew, and it was good to see the elation on the lads' faces. They obviously still give a f*ck, and that's a relief.