Eves' ANGLE

To be frank, at least we get to keep our pants on this year.
In the wake of yet another loss in the Air New Zealand NPC though, this one to Southland, a team we used to laugh at before Northland's rugby ice age started 26 games ago, at least we have something to cling to.
If it's our pants, then we'll latch onto anything that's offered.
Ending the season like we did last year, with no championship points at all, had the email box filled with smarmy suggestions from hordes of rival rugby fans about the shame of being "down trousered".
It didn't matter that such immature behaviour went out the window shortly after Ruth Richardson produced zero economic growth with the "mother of all budgets" a few years ago.
No, apparently the sight of Richardson's bare buttocks wasn't enough to sway the lads, they still wanted to see some naked Northland backsides as well.
All these rabid rugby scavengers wanted was the satisfaction of inflicting as much embarrassment as humanly possible. Not this season.
In the wake of Northland's nadir year, we all have to search out the positives though. So, if the Northland rugby team can at least finish this year with their pants still on, it must be a step forward.
In a dour encounter, played yet again under a brooding sky, Northland turned up to be counted yesterday to the point where they all but pulled off a miracle to snatch a rare victory.
But it seems like breaking this duck is not going to be easy.
Northland, thanks mainly to repeated line breaks from Josh Levi, tireless efforts from players like Bronson Murray, Luke Ottley and David Holwell, did enough to do what they haven't done for the last two years at least, and be in a position to try and win a game.
Levi cut Southland open three times in the first 15 minutes, but couldn't lay on a try-scoring pass. Murray was part of a solid Northland scrum, but did his best work carrying the ball around the fringes of the breakdowns. Ottley busted himself trying repeatedly to break the Southland resolve.
And Holwell? Well Holwell played like Holwell. The weather-beaten captain scored a try, kicked a long range penalty goal and showed why he is one of the most respected rugby professionals in the country.
But for all the endeavour Northland didn't win - make that couldn't win, there is a difference - and finished the match mercilessly hammering at the Southland tryline for no reward.
So now the Northland rugby eggs, what's left of them, are all piled unceremoniously into one big basket represented by the last game of the representative programme this weekend, against Bay of Plenty in Tauranga on Saturday evening.
It will be the last chance for Northland to avoid being noted in the national rugby annals as the team that lost every game of the last Air NZ NPC first division championship before the competition is relegated to the rubbish bin next year.
At least the decision to scrap this competition means we don't have another relegation scrap to contend with this year. That's the another positive, and a good one to finish on.