North Harbour vs Taranaki Predictions – North Harbour to get close against Taranaki

Simon Lewis

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Last updated: 4 minutes ago

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Taranaki favored due to strong opening win.
North Harbour boasts a good home record against Taranaki.
Key players: North Harbour to adjust after a tough start, Taranaki's Jacomb in top form.

Taranaki won their opening NPC match last weekend. (Getty Images)

North Harbour vs Taranaki Predictions

Going by last weeks performances from these teams, Taranaki are rightfully favourites. However, North Harbour do have a good home record against the Bulls. I’m backing the hosts to cover +8.5.

North Harbour vs Taranaki Predictions
Head to Head
North Harbour Form
North Harbour Team News
Taranaki Form
Taranaki Team News

North Harbour lost their opening match of the NPC season.
North Harbour have won their last 2 home matches against Taranaki.
Taranaki won their opening NPC match last weekend.
Taranaki have won their last 2 matches against North Harbour.

Head to Head

Taranaki won the last two games against North Harbour but that was both at home. Taranaki have not won at North Harbour since 2010.

North Harbour Form

North Harbour finished their 2024 NPC campaign in 10th place. It was a strange season for them after some very good performances ended in narrow defeats.

There will be hope in North Harbour’s camp that they can turn some of those narrow defeats into victories in 2025. However, they made a poor start last weekend, losing 38-25 at Manawatu, a game they would have expected to win.

North Harbour made a slow start which saw them trailing 17-5 at the break. A dominant start to the second half thanks to a try by Maka, and a conversion and two penalties by Pellegrini saw Harbour take an 18-17 lead with 17 minutes to play.

Unfortunately, thereafter Manawatu his back with two converted tries. Both teams scored late tries again but it was too little, too late for North Harbour.

North Harbour Team News

North Harbour will be eager to get a win under the belt at home. I do expect changes from last week after a poor performance.

Taranaki Form

Taranaki were superb last season, winning eight of their 10 round robin matches. They ended second on the table, level on points with Wellington at the top.

However, Taranaki could not push on from there, falling to Waikato in the first knockout round. This season Taranaki started with a strong 23-3 win over Northland.

The Bulls dominated the game at home from start to finish and never looked in any danger of conceding tries, let alone losing the game.