Counties Manukau have taken the Ranfurly Shield from Northland in one of the upsets of the provincial rugby season, winning 22-19 at Semenoff Stadium in Whangārei on Saturday afternoon with a penalty goal in the last two minutes.
Counties first-five AJ Alatimu kicked the winning penalty in the 79th minute. It was the first time all afternoon that Counties had been in front, and Northland’s last chance to hold on to the shield through summer ended with a handling error, 1News reported.
It is only the second time Counties Manukau have held the Log o’ Wood. The first was in 2013, when a side coached by Tana Umaga beat Hawke’s Bay to win it and then made six successful defences before losing it back to the Magpies the following year, the NZ Herald said.
The result is a sharp turn in a season that had not gone Counties’ way. The win was only their third of the National Provincial Championship, according to the Herald, and they will not be in the playoffs. Northland, by contrast, came into the match at the top of the NPC standings, RNZ reported on the eve of the game.
For most of the game the home side looked in charge. On a wet afternoon Northland halfback Sam Nock, who has played more than 100 games for the province, opened the scoring by darting over from a ruck close to the line. Counties replied when Sione Molia chased down a chipped box kick to score in the left corner, and James Ramm then dived over in the corner for Northland to give them a 14-5 lead at half-time.
Northland’s scrum was the biggest weapon on the park. The Herald said the set piece, helped by the return of All Blacks loose forward Simon Parker, was “terrorising” Counties, and Northland dominated both possession and territory for long stretches.
Counties kept finding answers. Midfielder Gibson Popoali’i took a tap penalty five metres out after the break and muscled his way over through four defenders to close the gap. Northland hit back when Corey Evans scored out wide off another dominant scrum, putting them 19-12 up inside the final 20 minutes.
That was the moment the game turned. Counties fullback Adam Morrison charged down Rivez Reihana’s conversion attempt, keeping the margin at seven points. Soon after, a wayward Northland clearing kick handed Counties a lineout just outside the Northland 22. They put together 14 phases of patient attack before a floated pass found Morrison in the corner, and Alatimu landed the conversion from the sideline to level the scores at 19-19.
With the clock almost up, Counties won a penalty. Alatimu, a Samoan international, slotted it despite boos from the home crowd, RNZ reported. Northland chased a penalty of their own in the closing seconds that might have taken the match to golden point, but it never came.
Alatimu said afterwards that he had simply trusted his captain’s decision to go for goal. “I backed the skipper’s call, just got to do my job and thank God it went over,” he told Sky Sport, as quoted by the Herald.
Counties captain Jimmy Tupou is the link between the two shield wins. He was in his second season with the province when Counties won it in 2013 and is now near the end of his career. “It’s extra special to be honest,” Tupou told Sky Sport. “The first time I was probably a little bit young and naive and we had a pretty star studded team.”
He told Sky Sport the side had treated Saturday’s challenge as the biggest game of their year. “I’m just so proud of this group. Results didn’t quite go our way this season and the one thing that was always unwavering is we always had a belief that we could put in a result like this, regardless if it was a shield game or not,” he said, as reported by RNZ.
For Northland it is a painful end to a remarkable run. The Taniwha won the shield from Canterbury in Christchurch in August, ending a 48-year wait for the province, and defended it successfully against Tasman and Waikato. It was the fifth time Northland, formerly North Auckland, had held the trophy, after earlier spells beginning in 1950, 1960, 1971 and 1978, RNZ reported on Friday.
The shield had given the region a lift well beyond the rugby field. RNZ reported that the trophy had been taken to all 51 towns in Northland, and that the crowd expected for Saturday’s defence was about 14,000, compared with roughly 2000 for home games last season.
Reihana, Northland’s captain, said the team had wanted to keep the shield in the north over summer. “Our intention was to lock it up for the season,” he said, RNZ reported. “This one is going to sting for a while.” He said holding the shield had been a huge win for Northland.
Counties will not have long to enjoy it before they have to defend it. Their final round-robin match is against Hawke’s Bay, the same province they took the shield from 13 years ago, at Navigation Homes Stadium in Pukekohe next Saturday at 5pm. A successful defence would keep the shield at Pukekohe over summer, while a Hawke’s Bay win would send it back to the Magpies.
The Ranfurly Shield has now changed hands twice since August, and a province that has only held it once before gets another chance to make it last.
Did Counties Manukau deserve it, or did Northland throw it away? Can the Steelers hold on against Hawke’s Bay next week? Tell us what you think in the comments below.
This article was written by AI, briefed to report the facts, hopefully without some of the bias people bring to the job 🙂
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