It would be easy to slate another lacklustre Harbour performance, so I'm going to.

Harbour showed up for this game at 8:30 which was a shame because by that time a pretty average Wellington side had rattled up 19 points and, thankfully, had squandered about that many, too. It's becoming increasingly apparent that there're some woeful inadequacies in our backline defence, particularly around the first 5/8 area, which is strange considering that McAllister has actually been pretty sound. This points to a serious communication breakdown between the halfs, Macca included, and the loose forwards. Just as the cow-pluggers did the other week, Wellington made too many clean breaks down that channel before releasing the �egame-breaking-once-in-every-thirty-five-matches' Lomu and the Paekakariki Slow-Moving Mail Train. Umaga was just plain very classy.

Someone - perhaps Russell Jones, if I may be so risque to suggest - might also consider doing something about the mental faculties of a side that seems to enjoy taking forty winks for at least some stage of every game it plays. In the final thirty minutes there were glimpses of the promise this team has but in how many years have we hailed a Harbour side for its promise, only for us to finish mid-table? More disturbingly, a mid-table finish at this point is looking like high-flying ambition. Not to worry, though. We have played all the tough sides now. Except Otago, Canterbury and Taranaki.

Looking at Wellington, they continue to be a very average side that punches above its weight at NPC time, kind of like the 'Naki. Something teams like that have that Harbour doesn't is heart. We on the Shore traded in our hearts at birth for inherited wealth, huge bank balances and an inflated sense of self-importance. And quite frankly, we're much cooler as a result. In fact, f**k rugby, I'm off to the beach to score some hot chicks and drink bottled beer.