Harbour have to hang on to beat plucky new boys

North Harbour 33 Tasman 27

North Harbour had things under control at halftime in their national championship opener against Tasman in Blenheim yesterday.

But it all got a bit sticky in a rollicking second half in which Harbour were outscored 24-7 but had enough credit in the bank to win.

It completed a weekend of predictable Air New Zealand Cup results, even if the scorelines and some of the rugby had raised a few eyebrows.

"At halftime we were feeling pretty happy," captain Anthony Boric said last night. "But we were happy to hang on in the end."

Which about summed it up. New boys Tasman played with plenty of enterprise and heart and nailed a deserved bonus point through replacement prop Tristan Moran in the last movement of the game.

First five-eighths Ben Gollings kicked 13 points and, with Harbour reduced to 14 men by the sinbinning of prop Mike Noble for a flurry of punches, another couple of minutes would have been sweaty-palms time for the visitors.

It had all been different in the first half as No 8 Francis Stowers, a late call-in for injured Nick Williams, bagged a couple of tries and the backs ran some classy capers.

Viliame Waqaseduadua scored a slashing individual try and George Pisi and Anthony Tuitavake were instrumental in other tries.

* Counties Manukau's players will turn up for training this week with a fresh bounce in their step. They'll know they could have toppled Otago at Mt Smart Stadium, instead of coming up four points short, 23-19.

But after withstanding a tough first 20 minutes, when they were camped in their 22, they showed enough quality and pace to approach the rest of the campaign with confidence.

Kristian Ormsby marked his return to his old province with a storming performance, capped by a fine try, in which he carried three tacklers across the line.

Blair Feeney kicked the goals to close the gap before Nick Evans made sure of the win with his third penalty three minutes from the end.

Evans, a former All Black back, was the difference. His goals kept Otago ahead and a slashing break set up Callum Bruce for Otago's only try. It was his first full outing since breaking his collarbone in the fifth round of the Super 14.

The former All Black admitted his lungs were burning but he was happy to come through unscathed, and with the points.

"I'm really happy with the way things are going. I've just got to get myself back to the form I had in Super 14. Mentally I'm over my shoulder and hopefully I'll be pressing for selection in the end-of-year All Black tour."

* When David Holwell skipped between two tacklers to score, then convert after an hour, Northland had pulled up to 16-all against Southland in Whangarei yesterday. And that meant minds briefly turned to the ending of the drought, which goes back to 2002, when Northland last won a championship game.

However the next 11 minutes yielded tries to both Southland locks, Hoani Macdonald and Kane Thompson, in either corner, and an intercepted Holwell pass gave flanker Dion Bates a 60m runaway.

Wing Rene Ranger did well to grab a second Northland try in the last moment, but the hosts have plenty of work ahead. They were unlucky on the stroke of halftime when referee Steve Walsh erroneously pulled back Josh Levi from a certain try after Manu Burkhardt-Macrae had snaffled an intercept, which was wrongly ruled a knock-on.

"After 60 minutes I thought it was on the cards," Holwell said of the possible ending of the drought.

"We'd started to get a bit of momentum. Unfortunately we let in a couple of soft tries and that was the game."

* Hawkes Bay replacement forward Nui Bartlett is in a stable condition after suffering a neck injury against Canterbury in Napier. Bartlett was caught awkwardly as a maul collapsed.

Hawkes Bay chief executive Mike Bishop said last night that there had been an improvement in the last day but the prognosis is unclear. * Wellington turned on the class in the final quarter to run away from Taranaki 30-14 in New Plymouth. However, Taranaki made life difficult for their senior Hurricanes partner, notably up front, where an ordinary Taranaki pack is rarely sighted.

* All Black wing Sitiveni Sivivatu is expected to miss Waikato's opening cup game, against Southland next Saturday, after damaging an ankle in yesterday's 50-15 non-championship romp over Bay of Plenty in Hamilton.

Sivivatu's year has been plagued by injury and his sights are now set on the end-of-year tour of France, Wales and England.

Flanker Liam Messam scored four of Waikato's seven tries in an impressive display. The Bay kick off their campaign at Wellington on Friday night.