Canterbury returned to the victory trail when they claimed a come-from-behind 38-28 win over North Harbour in Albany on Saturday.
The defending champions, who suffered a shock loss to Wellington on Sunday, wiped out an 11-point half-time deficit to hand North Harbour their first defeat of the season.
Canterbury outscored their hosts five tries to four but it was North Harbour who crossed for the first five-pointer courtesy of Matt Duffie – after just three minutes – before Richie Mo'unga scored the champions' first try shortly afterwards.
Gerard Cowley-Tuioti then crossed the whitewash for Harbour and Bryn Gatland's second conversion meant they led 14-7 before Mo'unga added a penalty to narrow the gap.
North Harbour finished the half stronger, however, and a converted Harrison Groundwater try gave them a 21-10 lead at the interval.
Canterbury made a terrific start to the second half and were rewarded when Tim Bateman and Mitchell Drummond scored tries soon after the restart.
They continued to dominate and sealed their win when with further tries from Drummond and Josh McKay before Shaun Stevenson scored a consolation try for Harbour eight minutes before full-time.
The scorers:
For North Harbour:
Tries: Duffie, Cowley-Tuioti, Groundwater, Stevenson
Cons: Gatland 4
For Canterbury:
Tries: Drummond 2, Mo'unga, Bateman, McKay
Cons: Mo'unga 5
Pen: Mo'unga
North Harbour: 15 Ben Volavola, 14 Matt Duffie, 13 Matt Vaega, 12 Harrison Groundwater, 11 Tevita Li, 10 Bryn Gatland, 9 Bryn Hall, 8 Hapakuki Moala-Liavaa, 7 Murphy Taramai, 6 Glenn Preston, 5 Brandon Nansen, 4 Gerard Cowley-Tuioti, 3 Michael Tamoaieta, 2 James Parsons, 1 Chris Eves
Replacements: 16 Steven Misa, 17 Karl Tuinukuafe, 18 Sione Mafileo, 19 Shane Neville, 20 Josh Tyrell, 21 Chris Smylie, 22 Shaun Treeby, 23 Shaun Stevenson
Canterbury: 15 George Bridge, 14 Josh McKay, 13 Tim Bateman (c), 12 Rob Thompson, 11 Braydon Ennor, 10 Richie Mo'unga, 9 Mitchell Drummond, 8 Reed Prinsep, 7 Jed Brown, 6 Tom Sanders, 5 Dominic Bird, 4 Mitchell Dunshea, 3 Siate Tokolahi, 2 Ben Funnell, 1 Alex Hodgman
Replacements: 16 Nathan Vella, 17 Chris Gawler, 18 Oliver Jager, 19 Hamish Dalzell, 20 Billy Harmon, 21 Ere Enari, 22 Brett Cameron, 23 Marshall Suckling.
Referee: Angus Mabey
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