Rugby: Hope lies at heart of Harbour's next five games

Harbour captain Chris Smylie. Photo / Brett Phibbs

Where there's hope, there's life.

North Harbour, buoyed by their two-point win over Auckland at Eden Park, are still in the wrong half of the Air New Zealand Cup ladder.

Indeed, the only team below them are the side they host at Albany tonight, Counties-Manukau.

Before last night's game between Wellington and Southland, there was a nine-point gulf between Harbour and the top four who will contest the semifinals. Five rounds remain.

On the face of it, you might be inclined to simply try to finish a frustrating campaign as strongly as possible, but halfback Chris Smylie puts it another way.

"We're still thinking about the top four," he said.

"There's still hope, and you've always got to hold onto hope. It keeps us motivated and moving forward."

Four of their six defeats have been by four points or less. A little luck here and there and things could be notably different.

"It's been really frustrating, especially the way we had been losing," Smylie said.

"Games could have gone either way, but they weren't going in our favour."

And that's one reason there was considerable satisfaction at the way they hung on to see off Auckland 16-14 at Eden Park last weekend.

"That last 20 minutes, we knew if we played well we could come away with a win, because the previous games we'd been losing in that last 20."

So, with the six-game losing streak behind them, North Harbour want to give the final rounds a decent lash, starting tonight.

The closeness of the points table won't have gone unnoticed at North Harbour.

Win well tonight and they could be as little as five points off fourth place by the end of the weekend, depending on how other results pan out. They would rather, like all teams, have their fate in their own hands, but at least it's something. So with that in mind, motivation shouldn't be an issue.

Ditto Taranaki, who will be in real semifinal contention if they beat Waikato in New Plymouth tonight.

They lie eighth but sit handy to the top four. They are one spot above Waikato who will be aware they have a reasonable run home, with three of their following four games in Hamilton.

Otago have been off colour this season, but they are buoyed by the return of new All Black lock Tom Donnelly for the visit of Bay of Plenty tomorrow.