North Harbour were the first qualifier for the final and Auckland were eager to knock them off the perch. Harbour had the first tap off and three women drove the ball down the field to gain good field position. Glenn Osborne was dominating the middle of the field and Harbour had three attacking sets at the line. After peppering the defence, Osborne threw a long ball to the #12 winger who scored in the left corner.
Auckland tapped-off and had some good attacking opportunities, but couldn’t get a score. The next ten minutes of the game was dominated by North Harbour with strong defence, excellent yardage and ball distribution.
Both teams had several opportunities to score, with the final passes being ruled forward by the referee and no score recorded. Auckland got on the board in the 12th minute after a well-worked try and the game was tied.
Soon after, Auckland’s #5 penalised was for leading with the forearm; Harbour attacked, but failed to capitalise. Auckland got the ball back but couldn’t hold onto it for long and after a turnover, Harbour created an overlap and Glen Osborne scored his second try.
It wasn’t long until Auckland hit back after getting three attacking sets at the Harbour line. They sent the ball to the right wing and it was 2-2. Harbour attacked from the tap off and an overlap saw #1 scoring on the right wing just before the half was up.
The first ten minutes of the second half was punctuated by mistakes and dropped ball, but North Harbour eventually received multiple sets of attack. They managed to score and stretched their lead out to 4-2.
Auckland then got into stride and replied immediately with Darren Wilkinson attacking the line, stepping to his right and diving between two defenders for a great touchdown. With one minute to go Auckland’s Tai Benedito threw a long ball to Denise Rado who scored on the right-hand side wing and tie the scores. North Harbour had one more use of the ball, but failed to score and the game moved to a drop off.
North Harbour had the tap off and in their first attacking foray sent a long ball to the wing, but it was dropped. Auckland were lethargic off the line and made slow progress; a pushed pass went to ground and Harbour got the ball back. The two minute siren sounded and the teams were down to 4 a side. A minute late Harbour created a wraparound and out-flanked Auckland’s defence on the right for #4 to score the winning touchdown.
Last Modified on 03/03/2010 13:08