Hawke's Bay hold off determined Northland

Hawke's Bay rediscovered their winning touch to beat Northland 35-29 in an Air NZ Cup rugby match in Napier tonight.

Heavy losses in recent weeks to heavyweights Auckland and Canterbury weeks stalled Hawke's Bay momentum after a strong start to the season, but they got back on track by wearing down Northland in an entertaining match which produced eight tries.

They led 20-19 at halftime after Northland scored late first-half tries to halfback Corey Tamou and lively winger Rene Ranger and then required a concerted effort after the break to finally silence the visitors' challenge.

Northland were not helped by having prop Tony Coughlan and hooker Tim Dow sinbinned by referee Brent Murray at different stages during the second spell.

Halfback and captain Danny Lee was influential in guiding his side to victory, and laid on the final pass after six phases of play for winger Zac Guildford's second try in the 50th minute.

Tellingly, Northland were down to 14 men at that stage after Coughlan was sinbinned for intentionally infringing at a ruck.

Guildford's try gave Hawke's Bay some breathing space at 32-22 but they were unable to build on that for the remainder of Coughlan's absence.

Instead, an exciting closing quarter was ensured when Coughlan had barely rejoined the game before being driven over the tryline after Northland advanced a rolling maul 20m.

David Holwell's conversion dragged Northland to within three points, but they again found themselves understaffed when Dow was sinbinned for an early tackle in the 67th minute.

Matt Berquist kicked the subsequent penalty to lift his personal haul to 15 points and give his side a 35-29 advantage.

They managed to protect that despite Northland retaining possession for almost five minutes at the death to drag the match out to more than 84 minutes.

The match had been evenly poised at the interval after Northland scored first through Dow, who scored a try in the ninth minute when Hawke's Bay found themselves thin for defenders around a ruck.

Lee set up Hawke's Bay's reply nine minutes later, a clever kick over the top bouncing kindly for Guildford to win the race to the ball.

Ten minutes later flanker Karl Lowe dived over after accepting a back pass from No 8 Grant Webb following a 5m scrum.

Down 7-17, Northland stayed in the contest through tries to Tamou in the 33rd minute and Ranger in the 40th, the latter a fine effort following a flowing attack featuring wing Glen Martin, centre Tony Koonwaiyou then Ranger, who stuck about to scamper around the base of a ruck and drop over the line.