With Slade McFarland successfully completing the transformation from hooker to tighthead prop, North Harbour smashed Counties Manukau 58-15 in their NPC encounter at Albany.
Playing creative rugby throughout, Harbour ran in 10 tries, to the delight of coach Buck Shelford, leaving only the crumbs for Counties Manukau which is obviously in for a challenging season.
Harbour led 17-3 after playing into the breeze, then put the foot down, scoring 21 points in 12 minutes after the resumption.
After that, it was a simply a case of how many points Harbour would gather. Luckily for Counties Manukau, Marc Ellis’ goalkicking fell away after a promising start and only four of the 10 tries were converted.
Harbour could take great satisfaction from this performance.
The scrum was strong, with McFarland and former Wellington hooker Ace Tiatia making a substantial impact, not only in the scrums but with the ball in hand.
McFarland ? the player no Super 12 franchise wanted this year, incredibly ? had a ball, scoring one try and setting up Matua Parkinson and Aisea Tuilevu for others.
Behind the scrum Harbour was mightily efficient, with Ellis, taking advantage of Mark Robinson’s slick service, combining tellingly with veteran Walter Little. Collectively, Ellis, Little and centre Rua Tipoki were too hot for Counties Manukau too handle.
All Black lock Troy Flavell, who left the field for 10 minutes with a leg injury, made his mark and won the praise of captain Robinson afterwards. “Troy made an incredible difference out there,” said Robinson. “We were so lucky to have him for this game.”
Harbour’s loose forwards Parkinson, Blair Urlich and Eddie Rawiri all had big games, revelling in the open nature of the play.
For Counties Manukau there was little to extract from the match apart from a strong games by tryscorer Koula Tukino and lock Ramon Lindsay,
To compound matters, the team lost key backs Loki Crichton and Danny Lee to injury.
For North Harbour: Tries by Aisea Tuilevu 2, Karl Tenana 2, Matua Parkinson, Marc Ellis, Slade McFarland, Rua Tipoki, Willie Walker and John Beckett; 4 conversions by Ellis.
For Counties Manukau: Tries by Koula Tukino and Patrick Petelo; conversion and penalty goal by Blair Feeney.

Man of the match: Slade McFarland (North Harbour).