The Northland Taniwha: A tough opponent to crack

Above: Underneath a pile of bodies is John Schwalger, who has just scored the winning try in Wellington's 31-28 win over Northland in 2010. The Lions are gunning for their 10^th straight win over the Taniwha on Saturday but most of these recent nine wins and previous victories against them have been hard fought. Photo by Dave Lintott.

The young Wellington Lions travel to Whangarei this coming Saturday to tackle the Northland Taniwha in their second match of the ITM Cup.

The Lions have won their last nine matches against Northland, posting at least 30 points each time. Overall, the two unions from either end of the North Island have met 33 times for 23 wins to Wellington, eight to Northland and there's been two draws.

Statistically, beating the Taniwha and collecting their opening win should be a straightforward assignment for Wellington on Saturday. In reality not so. In fact, Northland has always proved one of the toughest oppositions to crack for Wellington teams, with the final scores of several matches flattering the Lions somewhat. Here are three examples of such encounters:

1976: Wellington 13 - Northland 0

"We mightn't entertain them, but we won't be far away at the finish," Lions selector Ray Dellabarca told the Evening Post after Wellington's first win over Northland (North Auckland) in six attempts going back to 1939, and also Wellington's first ever NPC/ITM Cup win on home soil, in the competition's inaugural season.

Geography and a lack of tradition (Wellington had been playing Southland since 1896) meant that the Lions and the Taniwha rarely met in the decades up to their first NPC clash in 1976, but Northland certainly had the wood on Wellington up to that point. They won three of their first five encounters (in 1939, 1961 and 1967) while the other two of these were draws (1954 and 1970).

The match was billed as a clash between two sides eager to play a positive brand of rugby, but a "vicious switch in the weather just before the start", AKA a bitter southerly with rain and showers, forced a change in tactics to 10-man rugby and a dourer affair.

Wellington's tactics revolved around the tactical boot of first five-eighth Brian Cederwall and the hard work by the forwards. In treacherous conditions fullback Clive Currie and wing Stu Wilson - both 20-year olds and future All blacks - defied the conditions and their skill and flair helped influence the outcome.

Wellington scored two tries, to 111-game prop and current WRFU President Kevin Phelan and Wilson. Currie kicked a penalty and a conversion. In Northland eyes, both tries were controversial. Either an alleged foot into touch by hooker Kevin Horan in the lead-up to Phelan's try or a questioned forward pass from Currie to Wilson in creating his try after a surge from the back of a lineout by veteran flanker Graham Williams could have been referred to the TMO if it existed.

But they were both allowed and the Lions strolled to a 13-0 win.

From that point in the season, the Lions struggled for momentum, drawing their next match 18-18 with eventual 1976 champions Bay of Plenty and then losing to Canterbury 14-15 en route to a sixth placed finish. With three key players in the All Blacks team in South Africa at the time, including their best player Sid Going, Northland struggled and were relegated to ‘Division Two' at season's end.

1984: Wellington 58 - Northland 12

It was a game of two halves in their September 1984 clash at Athletic Park. Wellington was thoroughly unconvincing in the first half and led 16-8 at the turn. Both teams showed a willingness to excite, but a host of errors turned much of the first half exchanges into a shambles.

Coach Ian Upston's words at the interval had an effect on the side and the second 40 minutes was a different story for the Lions who steamrolled the Kauri contenders to win 58-12.

Wellington rattled on 22 points between the 40th and 50th minutes. The Wellington forwards laid the platform, with locks Gerrard Wilkinson and Murray Pierce and loose forwards Murray Mexted and Mike O'Leary dominant. Prop Brian McGratten was the main benefactor of the pack's hard work, scoring a hat-trick of tries - and he remains the only prop to score three tries in an NPC Division 1/ITM Cup match.

2004: Wellington 65 - Northland 12

By the time the two teams met at Westpac Stadium in 2004 the NPC had long since taken hold as the country's premier provincial rugby competition, professionalism had been firmly established and at the time the Lions were the hottest provincial ticket in the land.

Two weeks out from the semi-finals, the Rodney So'oialo led Lions cemented their position at the top of the table with this big win over Northland. They then went to Southland and won 30-0, thus qualifying first and securing a home semi-final.

First five-eighth Riki Flutey scored two of nine tries and was the Player of the Match, running hard and straight all afternoon and kicking well for position. Many of the tries scored were vintage. None more so than flanker Scott Waldrom's seventh try. Waldrom was on hand to cap a sweeping length of the field movement from a defensive five-metre scrum. Then there was the hugely popular try scored by Ma'a Nonu, who, returning from a broken thumb, bursted through the defence to score only moments after he had been subbed on the field for Tana Umaga.

The Taniwha put up a brave fight, competing admirably in the middle stages, and they trailed only 23-12 with 25 minutes remaining. But, a bit like their 1984 meeting, the Lions roared in the second half, and they ran in a further six unanswered tries to rock the visitors. Taken with a 73-28 drubbing of Taranaki the week before, the Lions had now scored 19 tries and 138 points in their last two outings.

The winning margin of 53 points eclipsed the Lions' previous best over Northland of 46, set in the 1984 match. After beating Southland the following week, the Lions beat Waikato 28-16 in their home semi-final, before missing out on what would have been a fifth title by losing to Canterbury 27-40 in the home final.

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Ricoh Wellington Lions v Northland Taniwha, this Saturday at Toll Stadium in Whangarei. Kick-off 2.35 pm.

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