Otago coach Steve Martin says hard work and a change in attitude led to the better performance of the tight five last night.
The Otago line-out and scrum took a good step forward last night after a disappointing performance against Canterbury last Saturday at Carisbrook.
Martin said the side, and the forwards in particular, had done a lot of work to get back to where they wanted to be in terms of a solid team performance.
"We started to get a lot of phases together in the second half and started to stick to our game plan," Martin said.
Although acknowledging the opposition was different, he said the good work from the forwards came through a better attitude and wanting to get on the front foot and not step back.
Martin admitted it was a messy game, but was pleased to come away with the four points from a side which was always going to be tough.
The side went away from the game plan in the first half, trying to throw the ball wide when it wanted to get into Northland territory.
Bringing on Chris Noakes gave more options for kicking the ball.
Northland coach Mark Anscombe said his side was flat and could not string together enough concentrated periods of attack.
He felt his team did not make enough of the play, and did not ask enough questions on attack.
The announcement during the week that Northland would be demoted next year from the Air New Zealand Cup had no impact on the team, and was not used to motivate the side, Anscombe said.
