Canterbury 35
Auckland 16
Beating Canterbury is hard enough at the best of times but it's doubly hard when you beat yourself.
Last night Auckland were truly awful, gifting Canterbury a bonus-point win.
They handed the home side a 15-point headstart and fell deeper into a hole they dug for themselves as the errors
mounted and confidence drained.
It's about as bad as Auckland have played in Mark Anscombe's coaching tenure - he compared it to the first-up 47-13 loss to Hawke's Bay last season - and they will need to regroup quickly if they are to beat a resurgent Taranaki next weekend.
The defeat is certainly not terminal for Auckland.
They have three wins from five games and are too good to miss out on a place in the top seven, but they will need to improve significantly to make sure that happens.
"The concern I have is why we came here and didn't fire a shot," Anscombe said. "You have to come down here and have self-belief.
"We know Canterbury and respect them highly for the team they are and the players they have but you have to have self-belief and come down here and play to win; not to see what they have got and hold out.
"We were comprehensively beaten and have to look at it, regroup and bounce back next week. We had a game we thought could do the job today but we just didn't fire a shot. As the game progressed, we lost confidence and started playing as individuals and it compounded from there."
Auckland started horribly and trailed 15-0 inside 11 minutes after conceding two needless tries. The first came from turnover ball; Colin Slade chipped ahead and, when Auckland wing Charles Piutau couldn't haul it in, Luke Romano rumbled over.
The second occurred when Benson Stanley flung out a long pass that was intercepted by Canterbury wing Telusa Veainu. Admittedly Stanley was trying to take advantage of an overlap and Veainu read it brilliantly - but it put Auckland on the back foot and they never recovered.
They turned the ball over like it was crime to have it. In the first half alone they only once managed to put more than three phases together, coughed up possession 14 times and missed 11 tackles.
Their lineout was off, they fumbled possession, passes went astray and they looked disorganised. They simply couldn't build any pressure of their own and crossed for their only try to blindside flanker Onosai'i Auva'a four minutes from time.
It was, quite simply, ugly.
Auckland had been building nicely throughout the season.
In fact, it was Canterbury who had been off-colour. In their first four games they struggled to express themselves and drew with Hawke's Bay, scraped past Manawatu and were upset by Tasman.
They had talked about being embarrassed about their performances to date and wanted to redress that against their traditional rivals.
Last night they were good at times, bringing an intensity that was missing last weekend in Nelson, but they clearly profited from Auckland's waywardness.
The visitors simply couldn't maintain possession.
It almost seemed that the harder they tried, the worse it became and Canterbury first five-eighths Slade thoroughly enjoyed taking advantage.
If he wasn't ticking the scoreboard over with penalties, he was setting up tries, like the grubber he cleverly put in behind the Auckland defence for Robbie Fruean to score.
Slade this week signed to play with the Highlanders in next year's Super 15 and he will only get better with extended game time. All Blacks assistant coach Wayne Smith, who was in attendance, might well have taken a keen interest.
Canterbury fullback Sean Maitland ensured his side collected a bonus point when he regathered his own grubber kick in the 70th minute.
"Physically nothing changed [from the previous weeks], tactically nothing has really changed," Canterbury coach Rob Penney said. "The only thing that changed was [the players'] commitment to their mental preparation.
"Hopefully, on the back of that, they will learn it's so important to get that mental prep right. Hopefully we can get off the rollercoaster and on the upward slant."
Canterbury 35 (L. Romano, T. Veainu, R. Fruean, S. Maitland tries; C. Slade 3 pens, 3 cons) Auckland 16 (O. Auva'a try, M. Berquist 3 pens; A. Moeke con). HT: 18-6.
