Four down, nine to go

Let's recap Sunday's rugby action from round 4 of the ITM Cup: Northland may have really done Manawatu in last week but they couldn't even get a bonus point out of Auckland this week - Auckland won 26-13, with Auckland's points being in the form of an alphabet soup consisting of tries by Pauliasi Manu and Toby Morland, as well as two conversions and four penalties from Matt Berquist. Northland's attempt was literally half-baked - in fact, besides walking away with only half the points, they were stuck with only half the tries (the try being scored by Mikaele Tuu'u), half the conversions (the conversion being scored by Lachie Munro), and half the penalties (both penalties courtesy of Lachie Munro).

Afterwards, Southland became the only away team to win a game over the weekend. They beat Hawke's Bay 23-20 despite two of their players being sin-binned (namely, Tim Boys in the 33rd minute and Pehi Te Whare in the 77th minute). Southland got their points from one try apiece by Pehi Te Whare and Matt Saunders, and Robbie Robinson kicked two conversions and three penalties. Hawke's Bay earned theirs from one try apiece by Sinoti Sinoti, Bryn Evans, and Zac Guildford; Dan Kirkpatrick added to that with a conversion and a penalty.