A severly depleted Canterbury squad missing ALL TEN of its All Blacks put North Harbour to the sword Friday night on a flamin freezing evening here in Godzone's city, Christchurch!

The Harbour boys came down here pretty cocky of a good win after their thrashing of Counties-Manukau the week previous. Unfortunately they came up against the brick wall of Canterbury rugby...literally.

SUCH DEFENSE!!!! Some bone crunching tackles by the Cantabs. Glorious stuff!!!!! Marc Ellis looked non-plussed as he was repeatedly smashed.

The domination started up front. An awesome Canty front five of Hewett, Cuttance, Barrell, Lancaster & Jack overpowered a weak North Harbour scrum (with MacFarlane at prop). Their dominance allowed the improving Canty loosies free reign (rain?) to attack the ball in shitty conditions.

Maisey used the abundance of possession to quite awesome effect. For such an inexperienced players his control, kicking & running game was quite supurb. This man looks to have the goods as far as I'm concerned.

Bubs Mayerholfer's experience in the midfield was telling as he repeatedly hit the ball up & did some prodigious line clearence kicking.

The other to really standout was Ben "Christian Cullen/Andrew Mehrtens" Blair. This boy is a superstar in the making. His goal kicking in treacherous conditions was nothing short of remarkable.

For Harbour, Mark Robinson stood out as a much improved players. Tackling & passing looked good and he still has that sharp turn of pace. He certainly overshadowed Ben Hurst in this game.

This was a game I think many people thought Canty would lose without its AB's. The fact they didn't & won so convincingly must worry the rest of the field in this years NPC.