After travelling down the day before from Kerikeri, Northland's first ever Farah Palmer Cup team charged out onto a cold and windy Park Island field in Napier with the support of many family members who had made the trip for the historic occasion.
Northland were the first to score through left wing Savannah Bodman, who would go on to notch up a hat-trick, but due to the visitors' fatigue and missed tackles Hawke's Bay stormed back into the game with a couple of soft tries late in the first half.
Leading 33-12 going into the second half, the home side struck again and the game threatened to blow out for the Northland women. However, the visitors hung in there to score tries late in the game to finish with 31 points and take pride in their first outing.
Bay of Plenty's Farah Palmer Cup team also suffered the same fate as their men's side, losing a tight game to Wellington, 32-29.
Volcanix coach Rodney Gibbs says his side conceded a couple of penalties in those final minutes, which allowed Wellington to score the winning try with four minutes remaining.
"You can see the hurt in the girls after the game. The girls looked good, they are trying really hard, and it is not the end of the world. We will have to go back to the drawing board and have a look at it. But talk can only go so far, we have to action a few things," Gibbs said.
"We have a couple of big games ahead that we can get excited about."
The Volcanix play Auckland in Whakatāne on Saturday and then Waikato in Hamilton the following week before taking the bye.
