QBE North Harbour remains undefeated at Fortress Albany!

A wise man once said, 

“It’s the 3 D’s that win rugby games: Dackle! Dackle! Dackle!” and that was clearly the mantra as North Harbour triumphed over a determined Bay Of Plenty outfit 44-34 this afternoon. Well, it was for the first half. The tryfest in the second half will have both coaches planning defence drills in the coming week.

The two teams traded in threes initially and Harbour inched ahead 6-3 as Bryn Gatland and Dan Hollinshead punished early indiscretions, and it was not until the 17 minute mark until we saw the first try of the day by Bay of Plenty after some quality sustained pressure, and Teddy Stanaway crossed the line for the visitors. Hollinshead converted to make the score 6-10 after 19 minutes.

Harbour replied at 32 mins after some sustained forward momentum, and Captain Chris Vui scampered over for his second try in two games. Gatland converted and made it 13-10, but not 5 minutes later, Harbour scored what could arguably be the try of the season.

In trademark fashion, Harbour look to attack from anywhere and from just outside their own goalline, Mayhew scooped loose ball up to McGahan who fed Little on the right. Quick hands to Gatland who took it over the 22, and on to Duffie wide on the right wing. Over halfway he went and sent a pass ‘skyhook’ style infield which went to ground, Little kicked ahead to just outside BOP’s 22, and was scragged to the ground. Quick ball and pinpoint passing left from Duffie at the base of the ruck set the backline alight to Gatland, skip pass to Preston in support in the midfield, out to Vaega, and on to Li, who went in in the corner. The kick was superb from Gatland and Harbour went into to the break 20-10 ahead.

The second half started the way The first half finished: Tevita Li scoring tries. He continued peppering the left wing corner, this time in the 44th minute off the back of focussed forward momentum through continuous rolling mauls. BOP replied almost instantly with a try to Monty Ioane, then came a flurry or tries every 5 or 6 minutes, for Harbour to Matt Vaega (50th minute), Nic Mayhew (56th), and Matt Duffie (64th), and for the BOP with Henry Stowers dotting down in the 61st minute, and Joe Royal (69) and Jesse Parete (75) adding to the visitors tally. 

Momentum shifted the Bays way in the last few minutes but they ran out of time and Harbour were victorious 44-34 collecting a 5 point win, moving them to 3rd on the Championship table.

The next game for Harbour is the Ranfurly Shield challenge v Canterbury on   Friday 7th October in Christchurch.

Scorers: North Harbour 44 (Chris Vui, Tevita Li 2, Matt Vaega, Nic Mayhew, Matt Duffie tries; Bryn Gatland 4 con, 2 pen) Bay of Plenty 34 (Teddy Stanaway, Monty Ioane, Henry Stowers, Joe Royal, Jesse Parete tries; Dan Hollinshead 3 con, pen). HT: 20-10