Rugby: Taniwha trampled by Bulls

Northland's Sam Nock fends off a tackler during his side's 50-7 loss to Taranaki. Photo/ John Stone

Northland 7
Taranaki 50

Northland's stuttering start to the 2015 ITM Cup season has taken another bitter blow in the form of a heavy 50-7 thumping at the hands of last year's premiership winners, Taranaki.

Taking to the pitch under a brief bout of sunshine, both sides looked well-matched atop a greasy playing surface at Toll Stadium.

Northland unleashed their intentions early on with a hard-hitting brand of defence which saw Taranaki fail to regulate their attacking shape and handling of the pill.

However, defensive slip-ups by Northland toward the back end of the first stanza let Taranaki flex their legs and build a healthy 21-0 lead heading into the changing sheds for halftime oranges.

Letting several opportunities slip away, Northland's match fell to pieces due to a derelict attacking shape and an inability to string together multiple phases.

Paying for some costly defensive lapses, Taranaki's key attacking threats put Northland on the back foot and the Taniwha failed to recover after the gap on the scoreboard grew via a gutsy run at the sticks by Taranaki blindside flanker Toa Halafihi, followed by a nifty Charlie Ngatai try shortly before halftime.

The second half saw Taranaki continue their dominance and slowly gain momentum on attack.

Trumping the Taniwha in the scrums and lineouts, Taranaki hindered Northland's inability to get their set piece firing.

With smooth tactical decisions from Marty McKenzie and Cody Lei at first five-eighth, Taranaki opened up the gate for the Bulls to run down the race.

Ngatai crossed for his second of the afternoon followed closely by Seta Tamanivalu.

Rookie winger Latu Vaeno then put the icing on the cake for the visiting side with two cheeky tries inside the final quarter.

With salt well and truly rubbed into the wound, Dan Hawkins' try heading into the last 20 minutes saw a lift in morale form Northland, however, his silky running skills in open space came too late for the home side - their inability to construct any sort of rebuttal squandered by a much superior side.

Northland 7 (Hawkins try; Hawkins con)
Taranaki 50 (Penalty try, Halafihi, Ngatai 2, Tamanivalu, Va'eno 2 tries; Rei 6 cons, pen)
HT: 0-21