Northland are one win away from keeping the Ranfurly Shield in Whangārei for the summer after beating Waikato 34-17 at Semenoff Stadium on Saturday night. It was their second successful defence since taking the trophy off Canterbury three weeks ago, and it came with a piece of history attached.
According to RNZ, it was the first time Northland have ever beaten Waikato in a Shield match. The Taniwha scored five tries to three and led 34-10 before Waikato added a late consolation try, and the result lifted them to second on the NPC table, the New Zealand Herald reported.
Lachlan Hooper, an Australian import, opened the scoring in the 15th minute and first five-eighth Rivez Reihana converted. Waikato’s Dan Sinkinson answered six minutes later in the right-hand corner, but Taha Kemara pushed the conversion wide in what RNZ described as trying kicking conditions, leaving Northland in front.
Halfback Sam Nock then scored a try Waikato disputed. A Northland maul broke apart, Nock weaved through the tangle of bodies and dotted down, and the Waikato players appealed for an obstruction call that never came. Reihana kicked a penalty on the half-time siren to send Northland to the break 15-5 up.
Winger James Ramm scored in the corner six minutes into the second half to make it 20-5. Tepaea Cook-Savage kept Waikato in touch with a spectacular finish in the corner in the 57th minute, but that was as close as the visitors got. Hooper’s second try put Northland 17 points clear with 15 minutes left, and winger Brady Rush sealed it with seven minutes to play when a grubber from Corey Evans sat up perfectly for him. Replacement hooker Sean Ralph scored for Waikato at the end.
The history in this one runs back 75 years. The province, then called North Auckland, won the Shield for the first time in September 1950, beating South Canterbury 20-9 at Fraser Park in Timaru. It made two successful defences before Waikato took the Shield off it 6-3 at Rugby Park in Whangārei on 18 August 1951, according to the record of Shield challenges. Saturday’s win was the first time the ledger went the other way.
This Northland tenure began on 20 August, when the Taniwha travelled to Christchurch as heavy outsiders and took the Shield off Canterbury 36-12, ending a wait that went back to 1978. Hundreds of people packed Whangārei Airport to welcome the team home the next day. “I was on the flight home and I had it [the shield] next to me, and I still can’t really believe it,” Reihana, the captain, told 1News. Of the crowd, he said, “This is the busiest I’ve ever seen this airport.” Nock, who also scored in Christchurch, put the upset more simply. “It wasn’t impossible to us,” he said.
The first defence, a 20-10 win over Tasman on 30 August, was Northland’s first successful Shield defence since 1979, the Herald reported. Reihana scored the try that sealed that match and afterwards talked about the week that had been. “It’s been a hell of a week, being able to feel it, and just taking up the Ranfurly up north, man, it was bloody special,” he told Sky Sport.
The Shield has spent much of the time between matches on the road. Before the Tasman game the union took the Log o’ Wood on tour to Kaitāia, Kaikohe, Hokianga, Dargaville, Whangārei, Kaiwaka and Wellsford, finishing with a public parade through central Whangārei. After the Tasman win Reihana promised to go further. “We’re going to take it up, try and get to every corner of Northland. I know there are a few places that missed out, so we’re going to do our best to take it up next week,” he said.
That is the thing about the Shield that sets it apart from the other trophies in New Zealand rugby. It lives with whoever holds it, and challengers have to come and take it. For a union that has spent most of the professional era watching its best players leave for Auckland and the Blues, holding it has meant an airport welcome, a parade through the city and big home crowds behind the team at both defences.
Waikato know how quickly it can go. The Mooloos took the Shield off Taranaki 23-22 in New Plymouth in August last year and lost it to Southland eight days later. Southland then lost it to Canterbury, and it has passed through Otago and Canterbury again on its way north since.
Northland’s one remaining scheduled defence is at home against Counties Manukau on Saturday 26 September, kicking off at 2.05pm. Win that, and the Shield stays in Northland over the summer. Lose it, and the Log o’ Wood heads south to Pukekohe with the Steelers.
Whatever happens against Counties, the Taniwha have now made two successful Shield defences inside a fortnight, after going 47 years without one. For a province that has waited that long, it has already been quite a September.
Were you at Semenoff Stadium on Saturday night, or do you have a memory of the Shield’s earlier visits north? Tell us 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 🙂
Leave a Reply