Tries: K Fotuali'i, P Playford, T Moran
Cons: B Gollings (3)
Pens: B Gollings (2)

Allan 'Polly' Pollock may well be spending much of this drizzly Monday morning trying to extract his foot from his mouth after we scraped shabbily past some two-bit outfit whose only claim to fame is to come from a town (Nelson) that plays host to an annual three-day uunst-uunst-dance-and-fuck-fest for thirty-somethings who can't deal with the fact that repetitive electronic crap is for over-the-hill bell-ends.

They gave us a fright and we gave them a bonus point.

We played well in places: our line-out was good and our scrum had the better of their motley rabble, yet in loose play they seemed to have the measure of us. Francis Stowers with his two tries might beg to differ but he'd be wrong. Most of our class was, predictably, in the backs where Waqaseduadua and Pisi the Younger made Tasman's no-names look like no-names. Ably assisted by the early replacement of Junior Polu and his deck-to-flyhalf-in-35-seconds pass, by some bugger I'd not seen much of before but who looked okay, Pisi the Elder and Tuitavake were able to carve vast chunks of space up the centre of the park. AD, who may or may not have been ambling back from a ruck that took place 30 seconds previously, managed to find himself in the backline and on the scoresheet courtesy of a break led by the latter.

Tusi played well enough to confirm his place in the team for the rest of the season - something that will have fans across the Union sighing resignedly. When he kicks goals, he appears so pained and the ball's trajectory and power towards the posts is never convincing. He snatches at the ball off the tee, but it worked for him yesterday with most of the kicks within his limited 30-metre range. Besides, Nasmith came on and proceeded to kick the ball into his opposite number's hands, gifting them a try. It's not often you can say that Pisi was the best fly-half on the park.

It was a day, though, for Pisi the Younger and the flying Fijian with the preposterous outside step. Their opponents might have been crap but these guys will be giving all the outside backs in the division some palpitations if they get the ball in space. It was also nice to see Mike Noble, slimmed down a bit, remind some guy with a flurry of haymakers that not all North Islanders are latte-sipping metrosexuals. More 'o that, please.

Despite two of their tries being home-town decisions (a dubious grounding and a forward pass) Polly shouldn't be chuffed and if he is then he's a nonce. We'll take the points, but we'll have to improve by about 50% to be in with a show against the 'Naki.