RUGBY - Northland win wet wrestle to gain whiff of final eight

It might just be a whiff, but the scent of a quarterfinal is now teasing the nostrils of every weather-beaten Northland rugby fan.
Northland beat Tasman 9-3 at Homeworld Stadium in Whangarei last night, a victory that has suddenly boosted their ranking to the heady heights of a mid-table standing.
But that just might be enough to send a band of Northland rugby trainspotters diving for the calculators and crystal balls to see what odds there are of an appearance in the Air NZ Cup quarterfinals this season.
Last night's result means Northland has won two, drawn one and lost one of their first four championship games.
So suddenly they are within a win and few sneaky bonus points of playing in the sudden-death stage of the revamped competition.
It was quite a slog though, the conditions limiting play to a wrestle between the two forward packs.
To be frank, the weather was awful, and only deteriorated as the game wore on; a downpour just after halftime virtually drowned the game as a spectacle.
It was wet weather pinball with the occasional wrestling match in between times.
Despite holding an advantage in size, Tasman battled to compete in the physical contest at the breakdown. Thanks to the work of Northland's loose forward trio of Joel McKenty, Justin Collins and Jake Paringatai, coupled with another bold showing with ball in hand from prop Tony Coughlan, the game was weighing in the home team's favour at the break.
When Northland made a rollocking beginning after the halftime pause, the Northland stocks started rising dramatically.
David Holwell's boot kept Northland on the attack, and they shoving the scrums and held that strong defensive line intact.
The trouble for Northland was that Tasman were equally ferocious on defence.
Paringatai's rhino-like charges didn't bust through and repeated rumbling forward surges were thwarted.
Just as well Dan Bowden kicked two first-half penalties, giving Northland a 6-0 lead at the break, a margin they defended for 30 minutes thanks in no small measure to that remarkably stable scrum.
When Tasman No.8 Peter Nixon was yellow-carded, the wet trudge turned into a knee-deep wade for the visitors. They just couldn't handle the wet.
Not that Tasman didn't have their chances.
While Bowden slotted two kicks from three attempts, Tasman's penalty-kicking ace Tim Taylor couldn't handle the conditions and muffed three pots, all of them with the wind at his back.
Yet again though, there was precious little dividing the two teams, perhaps Tasman offering more in the backline, where Joel Iggo was setting alarm bells ringing with his incisive running from second-five eighths.
Without winger Rene Ranger, who was a late withdrawal with a dodgy hamstring, Northland fielded Josh Levi at centre in his first start of the season and pushed Tony Koonwaiyou to his more familiar spot on the wing.
You couldn't blame Ranger for making his last minute decision, it was hardly a night to be a winger anyway.
For a nice change in tempo, it was a good night to be a Northland fan.
Result: Northland 9 (Dan Bowden 3 pens) Tasman 3 (James Foote pen). Halftime 6-0.