Northland's secondary school girls representatives may have lost their match against Auckland A but they closed the gap on their big city rivals.
Northland went down 41-15 to Auckland at Hora Hora on Saturday but made their opponents change tactics.
"They were struggling against our power up front and inthe end they were keeping the ball away from our forwards as much as they could," coach Rana Paraha said.
Northland scored two of their tries from pick and goes and the other from a ruck that had pulled the defence out of shape and the ball was cleared quickly to the wing.
Paraha said the team had improved on last year's fixture which saw them kept scoreless and beaten by more than 60 points.
She said if the backs could improve their defence, they would stand a chance of beating North Harbour this weekend. The team plays Auckland B the following week before a final game against the Chiefs area.
