This year's semis recall the past

Canterbury-Otago a new venture

Canterbury and Otago have never met in an NPC semi-final but Auckland and North Harbour have done so three times.

Since semi-finals were introduced to the NPC in 1992, Auckland have been in 11 semis, Otago and Canterbury in 8 each and North Harbour in 6.

Auckland have won all three of their cross-bridge semis against Harbour.

In 1993 and 1995 Auckland had big wins in high-scoring semi-finals but in 1999 the score was, at least on the surface, close. In fact Harbour made their neighbours fight all the way.

Auckland won by eight points but scored five tries to three in yet another high-scoring semi.

Doug Howlett, Caleb Ralph, Mark Carter, Charles Reichelmann and Iliesa Tanivula scored tries for Auckland, Rua Tipoki, Glen Davis and Walter Little for Harbour.

Then came the battle of the boot. Adrian Cashmore kicked two conversions and a penalty goal for seven points for Auckland and Orene Ai'i kicked two dropped goals for six points, but Frano Botica, who played for New Zealand and Croatia in his colourful career, kicked three conversions and three penalty goals for 15 points for Harbour. In the end the tries counted.

The results have been as follows:

1993:
Auckland vs North Harbour, 43-20

1995:
Auckland vs North Harbour, 60-26

1999:
Auckland vs North Harbour, 38-30