If you like your forward play rugged, bruising and without any beg-pardons, Saturday's clash between these traditionally strong packs will be just the ticket.
VENUE & TIME: Homeworld Stadium, Whangarei, Saturday September 1, 17:30 NZT.
HEAD TO HEAD: Played 40 – Northland 15, Taranaki 24, Draws 1.
LAST TIME: September 15, 2006 (New Plymouth) – Taranaki 17-23 Northland.
WALKING WOUNDED: A straight switch at hooker is the only change made by Kieran Crowley.
FORM: Northland is making a decent run at the top eight but really needs this match to keep on that course, while Taranaki can just about start waxing down the surfboards if this one goes the same way as the last four – close but no cigar. While most pundits expected these teams to be on or around the cut-off point after 10 weeks, Northland is making the better fist of getting the necessary points in the bank at present. Both teams had their chances last week but neither could make them pay and both narrowly missed a consolation point.
WHO'S HOT: Daniel Bowden has become the most-talked about player in Northland recently, with suggestions being floated that some bigger union may like to pinch him. For once, though, Northland may hold the whip hand in such a situation, as that is precisely what the salary cap was introduced to prevent. We'll wait and see. In the meantime Bowden is showing that he's now a good player at this level, a good goal-kicker by any measure and one of the key men in this match. The Northland pack has been admirable at holding onto its own ball – the Taniwha have turned over virtually no ball at the breakdowns in the first half of the competition – but now they need to do more with it. Taranaki will play the same sort of game as Northland, looking to its pack to do most of the hard work and hoping the backs can recognise a chance when one presents itself. Craig Clarke is becoming an important figure in the Taranaki pack and Tomasi Soqeta is the team's most dangerous runner from broken play, but the Taranaki eight also needs to have a little more imagination when in possession. We had a few glimpses of the pace of Paul Perez at Eden Park but he was hampered by some clumsy service from inside that cost a couple of scoring chances.
WE THINK: Northland has been making strides over the last couple of seasons and this is the sort of game the team is now winning. We think they'll do it again this week, although we don't expect too many tries and wouldn't be surprised to see Taranaki claim yet another consolation point.
TEAMS:
Northland: 1 – Tony Coughlan, 2 – Tim Dow, 3 – Bronson Murray, 4 – Dan Goodwin, 5 – Brad Taylor, 6 – Justin Collins (captain), 7 – Joel McKenty, 8 – Jake Paringatai, 9 – Corey Tamou, 10 – David Holwell, 11 – Fetu'u Vainikolo, 12 – Daniel Bowden, 13 – Tony Koonwaiyou, 14 – Glen Martin, 15 – Mike Davis.
Reserves: 16 – Justin Davies, 17 – Tevita Mailau, 18 – Steve Baker, 19 – John Cocker, 20 – Rhyan Caine, 21 – Leo Taliu, 22 – Josh Levi.
Taranaki: 1- Tony Penn (captain), 2- Laurence Corlett, 3- Hamish