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North Harbour edge out Auckland in nail-biting battle of the bridge clash

October 25, 2020
North Harbour player Murphy Taramai during their Mitre 10 Cup rugby match Auckland v North Harbour. North Harbour Stadium, Auckland, New Zealand. Saturday 24 October 2020. ©Copyright Image by Andrew Cornaga / www.photosport.nz

Fresh off a stunning upset win against reigning champions Tasman last week, Auckland have suffered a nail-biting 23-22 loss to North Harbour at QBE Stadium last night.

Coming down to the wire, Auckland's hopes rested on an 80th minute drop goal attempt from Simon Hickey, however the ball was grossly misstruck, sealing the fate of the visiting side in what was another battle of the bridge classic.

With two early tires, Auckland looked to be carrying on with the same intensity from their upset win last week, heading into the sheds at halftime with a 9-15 lead.

Harbour came out firing however, scoring in the opening minutes of the second half to bring the scores to 16-15 in their favour.

Both sides remained scoreless until North Harbour capitalised off the sin-binning of Auckland prop Marcel Renata in the 63rd minute, after hooker Luteru Tolai dotted down after a strong lineout drive. 

The visitors clawed their way back to a one point deficit when Akira Ioane scored in the 76th minute followed by a successful conversion from Harry Plummer however, Harbour held on in the dying moments to run away with the win.

Premiership leaders, Auckland, return to Eden Park next week where they will take on the number two ranked, Waikato.

North Harbour will face off against provincial neighbours, Northland, in Whangarei next week.

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