Talk about chalk and cheese. An hour of a rubbish from Otago was followed by 20 minutes of enterprise in which it flirted with victory, but ultimately it came up short at North Harbour last night.
North Harbour won 19-17 over Otago at North Harbour Stadium after the home team was up 16-0 at halftime.
Otago, boosted by a very strong input from its bench, came home firing in the last quarter of the match after putting together a poor opening 60 minutes.
Otago coach Cory Brown said the side went into a lull in the first half and North Harbour took advantage. But it came back well in the second half, fuelled by the replacements, he said.
‘‘It was pretty tough conditions for us and they got a bit of momentum going. But the guys who came off the bench really gave us a boost and we came home well,’’ Brown said.
‘‘Those guys created a lot for us and that is what we want them to do.’’
In the first hour, Otago’s handling was second-rate, it lacked organisation and no- one stood up when the chips were down. The side never got out of first gear and whenever a scoring opportunity arrived a silly error would crop up.
But when replacements Adam Knight, halfback Jono Ruru and first five-eighth Josh Ioane came on, Otago improved markedly and came home under a full sail.
It nearly went ahead when Ruru crashed over with 10 minutes left but he was ruled to have not released the ball when on the ground. Brown questioned whether Ruru’s disallowed try should have been referred to the television match officials but it was not to be.
Earlier, Ruru had scored a nice try off a lineout from 30m out, finding a hole in the defence and scampering over.
He was over again two minutes later but it was ruled out due to an earlier knock-on. Brown said the conditions were tough for Otago and North Harbour put his side under pressure.
‘‘But we’ll be all the better for the run . . . we did well to come back into the game and will take some real learnings out of it.’’
Otago had a forgettable first 40 minutes. Showers appeared as usual in Auckland and the ball quickly turned into a cake of soap.
The ball control from the men in blue and gold was about as good as the Dunedin water supply — Otago dropped the ball five times in the opening 15 minutes — and that handed the advantage to the home team.
Any time Otago got a chance to put something together the ball would be spilt and advantage handed over to North Harbour.
Its first five-eighth, Bryn Gatland, was running the show and after slotting three penal ties in the first 25 minutes he set up the only try in the first half.
After a Gatland kick was regathered by Tevita Li, Harbour drove the ball up and it went to Gatland. He spotted space inside and drew the last defender before Shaun Stevenson took the last pass to go in under the posts.
Otago v North Harbour:
The scores
North Harbour 19 Shaun Stevenson try; Bryn Gatland 4 pen, con
Otago 17 Jono Ruru, Mitchell Scott tries; Josh Ioane 2 con, pen
Halftime: 16-0