Whangārei could have run out of beer that night, such was the relief and jubilation in the Northland camp following a hard-fought victory that hung in the balance until the last quarter.
Whatever points the Stags bagged for losing within seven points were better than the frequent flyer points.
They were unlucky to lose after coming so agonisingly close before losing their shape a bit in the dying stages.
The team fronted up and rattled the Taniwha for the most part, but the hosts held their composure towards the end with a penalty to Rivez Reihana to extend the lead beyond a converted try.
The quality of the Northland bench added more bite to their attack and the likes of Rob Rush and Coree Te Whata-Colley shook things up in the physical stakes.
While Northland’s list of faults was long and comprehensive, the nuts and bolts of their disjointed effort could be summed up by saying they centred around poor execution and high turnovers.
They lost the pill in greasy conditions with the tryline begging. Northland enjoyed 57% territory, 55% possession and had gained 387m to the Stags’ 189m by halftime – but didn’t have much to show for in terms of results. The hosts conceded nine penalties and eight handling errors at that stage, which explained why they couldn’t befriend the scoreboard.
Southland, on the other hand, dominated the breakdown, won the carry and clean-out and played a brand of expensive, high-risk and high-skilled rugby led by the athletic Sean Withy and veteran Mitch Dunshea.
The team were not afraid to mix things up and put Northland into a defensive grind with a better territorial game in the opening half. The visitors were the first to strike through Whangārei-born and former Taniwha Scott Gregory.
It took Reihana the speed of Whangārei’s taxi service to hoof the ball into touch when near the Taniwha tryline and Gregory latched on to his charge-down and scored. Skillset execution has been the Taniwha’s biggest Achilles heel in the two games so far.
They don’t need to rip everything up and start again, they just need to get better at what they are doing – or not doing.
The team can’t survive at this level by spending most of the game on their own goal-line and not nailing those opportunities when in the opposition 22. They will need to fix them for a better chance at reeling in the Tasman Mako at the same venue next weekend.
