Card dramas centre of northern derby
North Harbour can still dream of a place in the Mitre 10 Cup premiership semifinals, after downing Northland 24- 8 in a controversy-filled crossover clash in Whanga¯rei yesterday.
Referee Cam Stone and TMO Llew Smart were at the centre of a couple of dramatic mid-air tackle calls, which first resulted in Harbour first five-eighth Bryn Gatland being sin-binned, then Northland centre Scott Gregory – ironically the man Gatland collided with – sent off.
The visitors to Semenoff Stadium had to withstand a spirited fightback from the Taniwha, after Gatland’s 57th- minute yellow card shifted the momentum from a Harbour side whose forwards had laid a fine foundation for their 17-3 lead.
Gatland came off worse for wear, but was in the wrong for contact with the man in the air. However, it was debatable if his actions were worthy of just a penalty or if he was indeed pulling Gregory down, meeting the yellow-card threshold. Gatland
was still arguing the point with Stone post-game.
A few minutes later Northland made the most of their one-man advantage, with Rene Ranger proving a dangerous threat off the bench, and dabbing a left-foot kick through for Gregory to slide in and score.
But just after Jared Page’s huge tackle on Ranger spilt the ball and put Fine Inisi on a runaway to seal the result, Gregory was then hit with his dubious 76th-minute red card.
The New Zealand Sevens rep was indeed clumsy in getting under Xavier Cowley-Tuioti and colliding with no contest, but it was again debatable whether it was a ‘reckless or deliberate foul play action’, and whether the Harbour substitute’s landing was indeed considered to be ‘a dangerous position’.
An apologising Gregory was left stunned at seeing red, which ended the day on a rough note for Northland, who remain in third spot in the Championship.
Harbour, though, who started the season with three straight losses, have now jumped out of the relegation spot, and are up two places to fifth, four points behind Wellington, and one ahead of Canterbury.
With the rain teeming down, points were always going to be at a premium, and after Gatland opened the scoring with a 12thminute penalty, his opposite, Johnny Cooper, replied in turn, two minutes later.
But then Harbour began to stamp their mark through their big men.
Harbour found the game’s first try in the 28th minute, with an impressive ruck penalty win by Murphy Taramai leading to a five-metre lineout, and then hooker Luteru Tolai went over on the back of the rolling maul.
Five minutes later, Northland paid the price for some scrum troubles, when prop Ross Wright was shown a yellow card, and the Taniwha were under immense pressure going into the break.
And with yet another scrum penalty right on halftime, the hosts eventually did concede points, as the Harbour forwards put on a good buildup through strong-running carries, before the ball went wide for Gatland to surge over.
His conversion made it a very handy 17- 3 lead at the break, though after Josh Goodhue dropped the second-half kickoff
and Harbour soon had a penalty their way, the Harbour No 10 then very uncharacteristically missed a shot from in front, 30 metres out.
And that was as close as the visitors got to that end of the park for some time.
While Kara Pryor was left kicking himself after knocking on with the tryline centimetres away, the momentum swung the hosts’ way following Gatland’s sin-binning.
But in the end Harbour were good enough to see it through.