KEY POINTS:
Canterbury 5
Northland 3
Canterbury started this match as if they were intent on running up a cricket score but ended up winning it by a soccer score.
Canterbury's win over Northland at Okara Park was memorably dour _ a strange mixture of tension, poor skills and brave defence.
The only try was scored in the first few minutes.
With the Northland openside Joel McKenty into everything, Northland kept troubling Canterbury at the breakdown as the home side stayed in a game the southern heavyweights were expected to win comfortably.
A braver or more intuitive coach than Canterbury's Rob Penney might have noticed the way this game was going and sent Stephen Brett into the action much earlier than midway through the second half.
Brett looked capable of finding the spaces that everyone else was missing.
Sadly, it was not to be, leaving this as a game that had lots of endeavour and little class.
Even the returning All Black halfback Andy Ellis was afflicted by the curse.
Thrown into the game in the final quarter of an hour, he muffed a quick tap and then spilled ball in the act of scoring a try.
Indicative of the poor quality was Canterbury's inability to get All Black wing Scott Hamilton into the game at all.
This was a game made for Hamilton, yet he spent the entire match mopping up at the back and didn't have one decent run with the ball.
Northland, however, can celebrate putting up a brave fight.
They had numerous chances to cause the upset of upsets in a battle between a leading light and cellar dweller.
But their main hope of scoring a try was through the chip and chase and David Holwell failed to take a couple of penalty opportunities that would have wound the pressure up on the Cantabs.
The visitors had held the ball for the first couple of minutes in the match to set up a try to Tim Bateman.
Northland had been penned inside their territory and couldn't even get their hands on the ball.
But slowly the Cambridge blues began to turn the tide, defending strongly, competing well at the breakdown and putting on a couple of breaks.
A match that had started with a hint that Canterbury might go on a try-scoring bender instead turned into a dour battle.
Northland icon David Holwell landed a penalty and missed a simple attempt that could have put his side into a surprise lead.
And it was Northland who finished the half pressing towards Canterbury's line.
The red and blacks had lacked penetration during the first spell and only No 8 Mose Tuiali'i stood out with the ball in hand with his tricky skills and loping runs.
Canterbury 5 (T. Bateman try)
Northland 3 (D. Holwell penalty).
Halftime: 5-3.
