Northland know they will be up against it during Thursday night's game against Hawkes Bay in Napier but they are a long way from giving up the ghost in the ITM Cup competition.
Their skipper, Jared Payne, said that because of Saturday's 33-45 loss to Waikato, the side would be even
more desperate for points against the Magpies.
"That loss has certainly hurt our top seven aspirations, we are very disappointed because we knew we had to win to stay in touch with the top of the table because a gap has started to develop," Payne said.
"All we can do is scrap for these last three games and get as many points as possible and hope the other results go our way and we might still be able to sneak into the top seven," he said.
They will have to do that without top points scorer Lachie Munro who is out after being concussed in the collision with Brendon Leonard on Saturday.
They are also without their All Black Rene Ranger who is still at least another week away with a hamstring strain, but it is the recovery of the forwards that is likely to concern the Taniwha management the most as several players are still battered and bruised after the physical encounter against Waikato.
Fortunately, Hawkes Bay also had a bruising encounter in their 34-all draw against Auckland on Friday night and it remains to be seen how both sides will line up before the match.
"We're only going to get five days off so it's going to be a bit of a challenge - I've never done that before so it's going to be interesting to see how we go - Hawkes Bay have been playing pretty well recently, so we're going to have get ready for another battle down there," Payne said.
