It was the Taniwha's first final in 24 years after coming close in recent years, and Northland struggled to get out of its own half, while the opposition resorted to their traditional ball-in-hand play and hammered away at the Northland line, with great reward.
Led by their inspirational skipper Ash Dixon and Fakatava, the home side forced Northland into mistakes as the game wore on and were unlucky that two tries were disallowed.
In the end, the floodgates eventually opened for Hawke's Bay, who bagged two more tries to open up a 19-point buffer with 20 minutes to go, and despite a consolation try with five minutes remaining, Northland didn't come close.
The crowd of 7500 went wild on the final whistle, as Hawke's Bay claimed their third Mitre 10 Cup Championship title in a decade.
Hawke's Bay 36 (Jonah Lowe 2, Neria Fomai 2, Lolagi Visinia, Ash Dixon tries; Lincoln McClutchie 2 cons, Caleb Makene con)
Northland 24 (Luatangi Li, Will Grant, Tom Robinson, Tamati Tua tries; Dan Hawkins con, Johnny Cooper con)
HT: 17-17
- NZME
Here's how the game unfolded:
