Harbour was mightily impressive in its 33-10 win against Taieri as well.
Dunedin overpowered an understrength Zingari-Richmond 79-12, and Kaikorai kept its playoff prospects alive with a comfortable 43-21 win against Alhambra-Union.
Harbour 33
Taieri 10
There is clinical and then there is the display the Harbour pack produced to dispatch Taieri 33-10 at Peter Johnstone Park.
The Hawks are loaded with powerful ball carriers and the pack proved unstoppable when rumbling towards the line.
They dominated the collisions and spent the entire match providing front-foot ball for a terribly spoilt back line.Harbour opened the scoring from a 10m lineout drive. Hooker Sekonaia Pole had the ball tucked away and was driven over.
There was absolutely nothing Taieri could have done to prevent Harbour scoring from that play and its players were soon back defending their line.
This time, prop Giorgio Bower galloped through a gap close to the ruck. Centres Sio Tomkinson and Hemaua Samasoni had featured strongly earlier in the movement and were a handful for the defence.
When Harbour did not have the ball, it turned defence into attack with some bruising tackling.
Lock Joketani Koroi used his strength to hold up the ball and force turnovers. Openside Charles Elton was always there when his side needed a link man and Solomon Pole was immense.
He won a lot of lineout ball for his side and punched the ball up with rare power. He got a second-half try for his effort and was the pick of a thoroughly impressive forward unit.
Taieri was understrength, talisman Josh Casey out with concussion and lock Josh Larsen and halfback Kurt Hammer also unavailable.
That robbed the Eels of some class but their biggest problem was Harbour just did not allow them to get into the game.
Taieri centre Matt Whaanga conjured up a try from about 50m out when he went around his marker, cut back in and scored near the posts.
Kaikorai 43
Alhambra-Union 21
Kaikorai kept its playoff prospects alive with a convincing 43-21 win against Alhambra-Union at the North Ground.
The home team was not terribly committed on defence and paid the price for some dreadful non-tackling.The Broncos found themselves pinned in their own half for most of the opening 20 minutes.
The only reprieve came from the restarts following the tries that were being scored.Kaikorai led 29-0 at the break and the game was more or less over as a contest.
Alhambra-Union did mount some resistance and scored three tries — two of those came in the first 10 minutes of the second spell.
There were three yellow cards in the game. Kaikorai second five-eighth TJ Ane and Alhambra-Union hooker Alex Frood spent time in the bin for high shots, and Alhambra-Union replacement Junior Zatali had a stint behind the goal-posts for a shoulder charge.
Kaikorai loosie Christian Lio-Willie continues to impress. He made some nice runs and telling tackles. Fellow loosie/lock Sean Jansen bagged two tries and stood out as well.
Frood, despite his yellow card, was the best of the Alhambra-Union players.
Green Island 42
University 10
Green Island put the pedal down straight from the kick-off and did not let up for 80 minutes in one of its finest performances in recent years, beating University 42-10 after leading 21-0 at the break.
It stunned University with a committed forward pack rolling all over the visitor while its backs tackled well and cut down any chances University had.
A corner of the Miller Park ground was still covered in frost but there were nothing cold about the home side’s effort.
Its forwards threw themselves into everything and muscled up around the fringes.
The ball-carrying was first class from the home side as it got over the advantage line at will and dominated territory and possession.
The entire forward pack played out of their skins, none better than young lock Woody Kirkwood, while the loose forward trio was never far from the ball. Brett Kingsbury came on to make an impact in the second half.
Highlanders prop Kalolo Tuiloma was into everything and carried strongly.
First five-eighth Alex Barnsley missed a sitter in front early on but shrugged that off to convert all six tries, including one from the sideline.
University looked like a fish out of water all afternoon and it could not get anything going.
Its ball handling was not good enough while it let itself be dominated up front.
It scored early in the second half, hinting at a comeback but it never eventuated as the Green Island bench made plenty of impact.
Dunedin 79
Zingari-Richmond 12
Dunedin raced out of the blocks and was up by 13 after 16 minutes on the back of a try to winger Ben Taylor and two Connor Fox penalties. Stalwart No 8 Chris Bell went over after 25 minutes from a tap penalty, but that was as close as Zingari would get. Dunedin had two more tries up by halftime, to flanker Jamie Mowat and outstanding midfielder Zac Harrison Jones, who scored the first of his three.
Dunedin ran in eight more in the second spell and nearly racked up 80 points against a depleted Zingari outfit. Zingari just could not compete with the pace of the Dunedin backs. Midfielders Harrison Jones and Isaiah Duncanson totally dominated this game with their power and pace and both had a hand in a lot of their team’s tries.
Up front, captain and lock Mark Grieve-Dunn put in a powerhouse 60 minutes before being subbed and his storming runs gave Dunedin plenty of attacking opportunities. He even had his own fan club, who came from all parts of NZ to cheer on their hero.
Enjoying a lot of possession and territory gave the Dunedin loosies the opportunity to range wide and link effectively with the backline and Jamie Mowat , Hame Toma and Morgan Reedy did this with aplomb.
Zingari was a makeshift outfit due to injuries and food poisoning and it just ran out of gas in the second spell as the floodgates opened. Halfback Marty McKenzie was probably its best and lock Tom Rowe was a constant source of line-out possession.