Canterbury 30 Northland 26
Fullback Ben Blair kicked Canterbury to a hard-earned win, but Northland walked away with the kudos after a rampaging performance in a riveting match in Whangarei.
Blair accounted for 20 points, but Northland scored four tries to Canterbury's two, led 14-0 after 20 minutes, 14-13 at halftime, and
then traded blows in the second half during which the lead changed three times.
Canterbury prevailed with three late Blair penalty kicks giving them the lead in the last minutes.
It was a stunning effort to claim two competition points by a Northland side largely written off before the game.
But it was a performance that left coach Donny Stevenson with mixed emotions.
"You wouldn't think we had come out of this game with two points if you went in the Northland dressing room," he said. "We thought we had five points out there, so yeah, there's a little disappointment there wasn't more."
Canterbury coach Aussie McLean paid tribute to the Northland side, saying they had always expected to get a workover in Whangarei and that Northland deserved respect.
"We have only won here three times since 1988 so we always expected to get a hard game and we got exactly that."
