Full strength Harbour hoping for big crowd

North Harbour should be at full strength for their Air New Zealand Cup rugby match against Otago on Sunday and hope the home crowd will be the same after their Ranfurly Shield win.

The Harbour team were on a high after taking the shield off Canterbury, but were brought back to earth with a crash in a 15-31 defeat by Waikato on Sunday.

It was their first game since winning the shield, and players still had superficial injuries at training today.

"We have all 31 players available, but quite a few were not able to train today," said coach Allan Pollock.

"There was a bit of panel damage from the Waikato game."

Pollock said it was a disappointing loss and North Harbour didn't help their cause by often turning over the small amount of ball they had.

"But we've got to give some credit to the way Waikato played with the ball in the first half," he said.

The home game against Otago is a quarterfinal match, meaning one team will exit the tournament, and Pollock said he hoped that would encourage locals to attend.

"We're looking forward to seeing how much of last Thursday's support at our shield parade can translate into a home crowd. It really would be a fantastic occasion," he said.

"It is a sudden death game and there may not be other games this year."

Pollock expected a tough game against Otago and said it was counter-productive to think ahead to the possibility of ending the season with both the Ranfurly Shield and Air New Zealand Cup.

"Just this week will do. We don't want to go through combinations and possible permutations about who we play next because there may not be a next if we don't front up Sunday."

Jonah Lomu so far hasn't made as much of an impact with North Harbour as had been hoped by many and played a full game with the union's second team in the weekend.

"He got through is 80 minutes for the second 15, and that was the key factor there," Pollock said.

Pollock said Lomu was available for selection against Otago but there were more training runs to go through before combinations were finalised.

- NZPA