Wellington vs North Harbour Predictions - Wellington set to return to winning ways

Brad Newcomb

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Last updated: 2 hours ago

Brad Newcomb 2 hours ago

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Wellington have won 3 straight home games vs North Harbour.
North Harbour have lost 13 consecutive away matches.
Prediction: Wellington tipped to cover the +1.5 handicap.

Wellington have a solid record against North Harbour in the NPC (Getty Images)

Wellington fell short in their second NPC match of the season last weekend but are on a winning streak against North Harbour at home. North Harbour were in fine fettle in the previous fixture but their away form has been lacking for a while.

Wellington have won 2 of their last 5 home fixtures.
Wellington have won 3 consecutive home matches against North Harbour.
North Harbour have lost 13 consecutive away games.
North Harbour have lost 3 of their last 4 matches against Wellington.

Head to Head

Wellington have a commanding lead over North Harbour, with seven victories to one in eight meetings in the National Provincial Championship.

Wellington Form

Wellington scored three tries and two conversions in the first half against Auckland to lead 19-17 at the break.

The Wellington Lions added two tries and a conversion in the second half, but came up short, losing 34-31 to Auckland away from home.

At the start of the new NPC season, Wellington took on Hawke's Bay at home, losing 52-33 after struggling in the first half.

Wellington have yet to get their season going in terms of victories, but they will have the advantage of playing North Harbour at home, having won three consecutive matches against their opponents on home soil.

North Harbour Form

North Harbour produced an excellent first half of rugby against Counties Manukau last weekend, scoring six tries and four conversions to lead 38-5 at half-time.

Harbour added three converted tries to their tally in the second half to thump Counties Manukau 59-19 at home.

Before that, North Harbour started their National Provincial Championship campaign with a narrow 31-29 defeat to Tasman away from home.

North Harbour will be pleased with their previous performance, but are a team that has struggled to win on their travels in recent seasons, having failed to do so in their last 13 fixtures.

Team News

Wellington

Isi Saumaki, Reo Matsushita, Penieli Poasa, Dominic Ropeti, and Josh O'Reilly each crossed the try line against Auckland last weekend.

Callum Harkin kicked over three conversions in the match.

The team for Wellington will be added once it has been announced.

North Harbour

Motikiai Murray and Tom Barham scored a brace each in the match against Counties Manukau last weekend.

Bryn Gordon, Jed Melvin, Leka Tu'ungafasi, Rory Taylor, and George Reeves each contributed a try in the match.

Cameron Howell slotted five conversions, while Coby Miln landed two conversions.

The team for North Harbour will be added once it has been announced.

Verdict

Wellington v North Harbour

Wellington have had regular success against North Harbour at home in recent clashes and are tipped to cover the +1.5 handicap.

Wellington +1.5

Handicap

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Brad graduated from the University of South Africa with a Bcom-Management Accounting degree and has a financial background.

His love of sport has seen him venture down the road of researching sporting history for the past several years, specifically boxing, cricket and football.

Other sports of particular interest are golf, tennis, horse racing and motorsports.

Additionally, he spends his time researching the military history of his home country of South Africa.

He is an ardent Liverpool supporter and is known to DJ and release music on occasion.