\u201cDreams come true in a Tanis jersey.\u201d<\/p>\n
Rush was among the stars for Northland, with a massive work rate capped by two second-half tries. <\/p>\n
It was the second Shield defence in a row for Canterbury who, after fending off Bay of Plenty\u2019s comeback effort last Saturday, couldn\u2019t match Northland\u2019s intensity on the short turnaround. <\/p>\n
Northland are the third team to hold the Shield this season, after Canterbury won it from Otago in round two. <\/p>\n
\u201cShield footy is different footy. Credit to Northland, they really brought it tonight,\u201d Canterbury captain Brodie McAlister told Sky Sport. <\/p>\n
\u201cWe just couldn\u2019t get the momentum back. They rode that the whole game and full credit to them.\u201d <\/p>\n
Northland celebrate Sam Nock’s try late in the first half against Canterbury. Photo \/ Photosport<\/p>\n
It took just seven minutes for Northland to signal their intentions, with hooker James Mullan crashing over from close range after an attacking lineout. <\/p>\n
Canterbury struck back soon after with tries through Tahlor Cahill and Jone Rova to lead 12-7 after 17 minutes, but the visitors refused to let their hosts find their rhythm. <\/p>\n
Canterbury struggled with handling errors throughout the contest as they struggled to find ways through the Taniwha defence. <\/p>\n
Tries to Marcel Renata and Sam Nock in the 10 minutes before halftime saw the challengers hold a nine-point cushion at the break, and they went on with the job from there. <\/p>\n
A converted try to Rush and a Rivez Reihana penalty gave the visitors breathing room as Canterbury tried to fight back in the second half. However, Northland did a good job of controlling possession and not giving the hosts too many good attacking opportunities. <\/p>\n
Ultimately, the visitors had the final say, with Rush getting his second for the night in the last play of the game to cap off the win. <\/p>\n
The defence told the story for Northland as they held Canterbury scoreless for the final 63 minutes of the contest. <\/p>\n
They will now return home with a long turnaround between games, putting the Shield on the line next Sunday against Tasman in Whang\u0101rei. <\/p>\n
Canterbury 12 (Tahlor Cahill, Jone Rova tries; Andrew Knewstubb con)<\/p>\n
Northland 36 (Rob Rush 2, James Mullan, Marcel Renata, Sam Nock tries; Rivez Reihana 4 cons, pen)<\/p>\n
HT: 12-21<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"\u201cDreams come true in a Tanis jersey.\u201d Rush was among the stars for Northland, with a massive work…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":574789,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[4498,8126,2741,33443,111,139,529,1067,69,8125,316,213,61],"class_list":["post-574788","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-sports","tag-beat","tag-canterbury","tag-claim","tag-heading","tag-new-zealand","tag-newzealand","tag-north","tag-northland","tag-nz","tag-ranfurly","tag-shield","tag-sports","tag-to"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/574788","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=574788"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/574788\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/574789"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=574788"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=574788"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=574788"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}