Northland can be confident

It was certainly a training session for the All Blacks’ world cup campaign, thrashing Tonga 92-7 in Hamilton last Saturday.

The result was an embarrassment to Pacific

Island rugby because the Tongans looked so out of condition. I am amazed why the All Blacks even thought of playing Tonga.

They don’t have a world ranking with most of the country’s talented players opting for league in Australia. It would have been better by those who facilitated this match to have Auckland, last year’s provincial champions, as opposition. You would have had a game.

Now, in Japan, the All Blacks will front up to arch-rivals South Africa in their first pool match. The winner taking this pool with Canada, Italy and Namibia making up the rest of the teams. If the All Blacks convincingly beat the Springboks, it will be a huge boost towards their third straight world cup title. Ireland, who somehow are now ranked number one, will be New Zealand’s next serious opponent.

The whole competition with England, Wales, France and Australia, it’s who is going to hold their nerve. Being defending champions, the All Blacks are the favourites. The depth is there with many players left home who could make up another All Blacks side which would do really well in any competition.

Northland’s debut in the women’s Farah Palmer Cup competition saw them lose away to Hawke’s Bay 64-31. Playing on a windy and wet park in Napier, Northland opened the scoring then fell apart with missed tackles and letting in a couple of soft tries. At one stage, it looked like Hawke’s Bay were going to run away with a big score. But credit to Northland, they hung in there and scored a couple of late encouraging tries. Sure, it’s a tough result for coach Cheryl Smith but the side is in good spirit; they love playing for Northland and are confident of recording a few upsets this season.

Who said the Ranfurly Shield is dead? Holders Otago, the underdogs to a strong Taranaki side, took on the challenge in a fantastic 36-27 win. It was vintage Ranfurly Shield stuff with Otago producing their best performance of the season to lock up the shield for another three weeks. Their final match will be Waikato who had a shock loss to North Harbour 36-38 last Saturday.

And that’s how Mat sees it.

Following a big loss in their season opener to Hawke’s Bay in Napier last weekend, Northland coach Cheryl Smith and assistant coach Susan Dawson have plenty to work on ahead of the Farah Palmer Cup week 3 match against Otago at Trigg Stadium in Whanga¯ rei this Saturday.