Wellington, Aug 30 NZPA - Spare a thought for Thames Valley rugby captain David Harrison.

The 25-year-old second five-eighth kicked lights out yesterday but it still wasn't enough to earn his side victory in their opening Heartland Championship match of the season.

Harrison accounted for all of his team's points in a 24-26 loss to Mid Canterbury in Ashburton as he helped himself to seven penalties and one dropped goal in an outstanding individual performance.

Ironically, he had two chances to snatch victory late in the piece when Mid Canterbury were a man down due to a sinbinning but his long range dropped goal attempts flew wide of their target.

The pool B match looked to be Mid Canterbury's for the losing at halftime when they led 20-9 after tries to Jon Dampney and Jason Gill.

But Thames Valley kept chipping away at the deficit via Harrison's boot to ensure an exciting finale.

Poverty Bay and South Canterbury also registered wins in a tight pool, where the largest winning margin in three matches was six points and all three victors scored 26 points.

South Canterbury overturned a 6-22 halftime deficit to beat North Otago 26-22 in Oamaru.

South Canterbury's resurgence was built around their dominance of the forward exchanges but the turning point came as late as the 71st minute when lock Andrew Scarlett scored a try after charging down a clearing kick in front of the goalposts.

Kayne Wahlstrom converted to edge his side in front for the first time 23-22 before he completed the scoring with his fourth penalty four minutes later.

Poverty Bay also overcame a significant deficit to beat King Country 26-20 in Taupo.

They conceded two soft tries to trail 3-17 before tightening up appreciably after halftime.

Tries to Petelo Piliu and Wade Owen enabled the visitors to sneak in front before fullback Kahu Tamatea struck a 47m dropped goal to extend the advantage.

Reigning Heartland champions Wanganui were far from their best but still too good for pool A rivals East Coast in Wanganui.

Wanganui scored eight tries in a 46-6 win, including a hat-trick to Fraser Middleton, but their error-ridden performance left them with much to work on in coming weeks.

Horowhenua-Kapiti took their chances to post a 17-13 win over Buller in Westport with tries to James Proctor, Ryan Shelford and Hirini Robin while West Coast followed an ugly first half with a methodical second to beat Wairarapa Bush 13-10 in Greymouth.

West Coast were their own worst enemy in the opening spell as they conceded 10 points from loose defence and poor discipline.

Josh Cornish produced their only try after the break when he slipped through several tackles and balanced himself along the sideline to score in the left-hand corner following an offload from centre Damien Blackburn.

Jason Merrett's conversion levelled the scores, and he added another penalty from 46m to give West Coast their winning margin.