Manawatu showed rapid absorption skills to turnaround their record loss to Auckland on Sunday by totally dominating Northland 33-20 in their ITM Cup game in Whangarei on Wednesday.
Northland were rocked back to Earth after reaching the heady heights with a victory over Waikato on Saturday. They were diffident in contact play, indisciplined to the point of suffering two yellow cards and indecisive with the ball in hand.
Manawatu looked a rejuvenated combination, who had learned their lessons while introducing new talent, as they started the game with genuine purpose, hard-driving and good support.
Their reward came with the first try in the 14th minute, to prop Grant Polson, after a superb set of rucks and running all stimulated by a breakout by first five-eighths Tomasi Cama, a huge influence on the game.
That proved a mere entree to the main feast. Confidence was boosted and suddenly Manawatu were throwing hail Mary passes with gay abandon. But the most important thing was that every time one was thrown, someone was at hand to take it. So it proved in the build-up to the 22nd minute try scored by livewire centre Jason Emery.
Polson, loose forwards Nick Crosswell, Callum Gibbins and James Oliver all played a part in moving the ball on before it emerged for Cama to float a perfect pass to Emery who ran on the angle without impediment before brushing off an ineffectual tackle attempt from Rene Ranger to score.
Manawatu almost scored again when Clare was given space down the right flank but in the grounding of the ball his leg hit the ground over the touch line a fraction before he grounded the ball.
But it didn't matter as just on halftime a failed Northland clearance kick was fired halfway across the field by halfback Karl Bryson where Cama was waiting. He pitched a chip kick over the heads of the defending forwards and it was Clare who had too much pace to run onto the ball and 'clear' out to score and add the conversion.
Northland's cause was not helped three minutes into the second half when prop Justin Davies was sin-binned for what referee Garrett Williamson said was an avoidable high tackle on Jason Emery. No sooner was Davies back than skipper and lock Bryce Williams was sin-binned for punching on the say of the assistant referee.
Flanker Dan Pryor strove hard to provide some spark for his side and one big break early in the second half threatened to produce a try but the determination of the Manawatu defence was borne out as the attack was stymied.
But when it came to commitment it was Manawatu hooker Rob Forman exemplified his side's determination by latching onto loose ball consistently and it was demonstrated again when in the 65th minute he was a key performer in achieving the side's bonus point try.
Northland turned the ball over in the Manawatu 22m area. Bryson kicked downfield and racing down the flank chasing hard was Forman. The bounce favoured him and he charged ahead before slipping in a kick ahead which was followed into the in-goal area by replacement back George Tilsey for the try.
Finally there was reward in the 73rd minute when, after a sustained period on attack, flanker Daniel Faleafa breached the defence with a strong run to score. Another followed to centre Ranger right on fulltime but it could not hide an ineffectual performance for the majority of the game.
Scorers:
Northland 20 (Daniel Faleafa, Rene Ranger tries; Ash Moeke 2 con, 2 pen) Manawatu 33 (Grant Polson, Jason Emery, Craig Clare, George Tilsey tries; Clare 2 con, 3 pen). HT: 6-22
