Canterbury beat Northland 5-3 at Okara Park in Whangarei on Friday night and retained its second place on the Air New Zealand Cup points .

While the Red and Blacks will know that they can play better than this, they still showed plenty of character to snatch a win in difficult circumstances.

Against them Canterbury found a Northland side that was playing with not only plenty of guts and heart, but a fair degree of emotional pride.

Canterbury started strongly and put together two minutes of sustained pressure. At the end of this movement blindside flanker for the night Hayden Hopgood threw a pass inside to midfielder Tim Bateman who crossed for the only try of the night. Colin Slade could not convert the try.

Canterbury dominated the first seven minutes of the match and came close to adding to their lead. Still, Northland came back and after a strong break the home side was only halted from scoring by big defence from Bateman.

After 11 minutes Scott Hamilton got himself isolated at a ruck and the supporting player was adjudged offside. The penalty gave Northland veteran David Holwell the opportunity to get the home side on the board and he made no mistake, much to the home crowd’s satisfaction.

Both sides were not as accurate as they would have liked during the first 20 minutes of the match, the error-rate high. Canterbury was, if anything, too keen and after 13 minutes was penalised for being off-side. Holwell though was on this occasion off-target.

Canterbury came close to scoring again after 20 minutes when only a forward pass prevented Scott Hamilton from scoring in the corner. Still, it was a sign that Canterbury was more than prepared to continue to get the ball wide.

The Canterbury scrum was working well and after 24 minutes the home side was penalised for not keeping the scrum up (or not binding properly). Slade, however, could not kick the penalty and extend Canterbury’s 5-3 lead.

Slade, though ,was having a terrific game and continuing his outstanding debut Air New Zealand Cup season. His running was especially impressive. He had been a stand-out against North Harbour last weekend and he was just as good this week.

The score remained unchanged in the first half. Regardless of whether you were a Canterbury or Northland fan, it was all a bit untidy. Neither side showed much cohesion and, as a result, they struggled to put together too many passages of play where tries were possible. Canterbury especially needed to tighten up and their forwards needed to give their backs more front-foot ball.

New Zealand rugby got a big boost after eight minutes in the second half when halfback Andrew Ellis took the field. Returning from injury, the University man looked as keen as mustard to get back into the action.

Roared on by their passionate home crowd, Northland had the better of the early stages of the second half. With Holwell organising things, they threw everything at Canterbury.

Like Canterbury, they were just not quite accurate enough. The one magical pass that needed to be thrown was just not there, reflected in the lack of scoring by both teams. This was not proving to be a game for the purist or indeed the entertainment-seeker.

Midway through the second half Canterbury made changes in an attempt to change the game’s flow – Peter Borlase came on for Owen Franks (blood bin), Hamish Gard came on for Bateman and Stephen Brett came on for Slade.

After 23 minutes Canterbury was penalised for offside. Howell had an opportunity to give the home side the lead with the resulting kick; however the goal attempt faded to the left and Canterbury retained their slender lead.

As time ticked on, both sides still seemed unable to score points of any sort. There was no reason for it, it was just one of those nights. It did, however, give the home side confidence that they could beat Canterbury for the first time since 1999.

Canterbury was still making uncharacteristic mistakes: for example after 33 minutes Ellis mistook a free-kick and knocked on. Again, it was just one of those nights.

On one of the rare occasions that the Red and Blacks came close to scoring, Ellis was tackled just short after Brett had made a strong break and fed his University team-mate. It was the closest that Canterbury would get to scoring more points as the clock ticked down.

Northland continued to attack but just couldn't penetrate the Canterbury defence. With the hooter having gone, Canterbury was awarded a penalty and so they kicked the ball out and took the win.

For Canterbury, Scott Hamilton and Paul Williams did little wrong in the backs, while Colin Slade’s running was a feature. It was good to see Stephen Brett and Andrew Ellis back on the field after injury.

In the forwards, Wyatt Crockett was again outstanding at scrum time, while Mose Tuiali’i always looked dangerous with ball in hand.

For Northland, fullback Jared Payne was a stand-out, while hooker Francis Smith never gave in. Former Cantabrians Tyler Ashworth and Mike Davis also made cameos for Northland in the second half.

 
 
Canterbury 5: Try: Tim Bateman

Northland 3: Penalty: David Holwell