North Harbour vs Northland
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Jono Kitto looking more lively in 5 minutes than Bryn Hall and Sam Nock combined.
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Good win for Harbour as ugly as it was. It's always hard in the early rounds of the M10 cup with guys coming in from Super Rugby seasons but to grind out a win tonight is crucial for Harbour.
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I thought my tipping was going to be off to a craptacular start with about 10mins to go.
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@tim Very good I thought, definitely outplayed Hall and Nock. Bought a lot of energy when he came on, ran well, did some very good cover work and his service was very good especially when his pack was going backwards.
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@tim decent. Added a bit of energy I thought when he came on.
Fuck that first 40 was dire from my boys.
Harbour should have had the game wrapped up by halftime with the amount of territory and possession they had but they were as bad as us at hanging onto the ball.
The penalty that Hohaia gave away to give Harbour the lead with 5 or so to play was just plain dumb and not needed.
A bit more composure we could have got over the line there.
Ranger, created havoc all night, great to see him back.
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Midfield was my biggest concern for Harbour, and they really lacked a good, hard straight runner there.
Does Duffie compete for the ball in the air, or even jump, anymore? Seems to have lost all his confidence.
Harbour backs very tentitive in general. Forwards looking good so far, as does defense. Am close to halftime.
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@tim In due course Loketi Manu may bring that power you are looking for in midfield.. He is a powerful 100kg plus 'Nonuesque' style of player. Still only 20ish and very green though. Did he get on at all in this game? I am a little surprised Auckland lent him out when they only picked 3 other midfielders for their squad.
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@jk said in North Harbour vs Northland:
Got the win but very low grade game
Actually like a lot of harbours wins last year too. Got the result but nothing pretty. Wetter out there than it looks tho so some of the ball handling can be forgiven...some
Yep agree. That was a shit quality game, but at least it was competitive.
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@african-monkey said in North Harbour vs Northland:
@tim Very good I thought, definitely outplayed Hall and Nock. Bought a lot of energy when he came on, ran well, did some very good cover work and his service was very good especially when his pack was going backwards.
Interesting history that kid, having done some brief googling during the game (this kept me awake). From Christchurch originally, spent some time in the NZ age-grade system inc U20 in maybe 2015, then there is a file pic of him in a Chiefs jersey around the same time but he appears to have then gone to the UK and played for 2 or 3 different clubs. Not sure if he's back now to make a run at SR and the ABs, or just enjoying a NH summer fling and some quality Northland hooter.
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Thought Groundwater ran good straight lines but Dargaville passing skill was well below par and kept stuffing up their flow of attack with passes behind the man. Too many times the attack was moving sideways and nobody was straightening making it easy for Northland to just drift. Northland's physicality and line speed on defence was pretty impressive, couldn't fault either teams effort just a shitload of inaccuracy. Fair play to Witcombe making the call after 30mins his TH wasn't cutting it and bringing Rinakama on, no scrum pressure after that.
