Canterbury’s first defence of the Ranfurly Shield came within five points of failing. The holders beat Bay of Plenty 33-28 at One New Zealand Stadium at Te Kaha in Christchurch on Saturday afternoon, and they needed a try with 10 minutes left on the clock to keep the log o’ wood in the South Island.
The scoreline will mean something to anyone in the Bay who remembers 2004. On 15 August that year, Bay of Plenty went to Eden Park and beat Auckland 33-28 to take the Ranfurly Shield for the first and, so far, the only time in their history. Exactly 22 years to the day, in a different city and against a different opponent, the same numbers came back at them the other way round.
For most of the first half there was no sign of a close finish. Canterbury had the ball and the field position, and they turned both into points. Dallas McLeod scored twice, in the eighth minute and again just before the break, with Jone Rova adding a third in the 12th minute. Canterbury led 21-7 at halftime and looked like a side that would pull away.
They almost did. Ngane Punivai crossed four minutes into the second half to push the lead out to 26-7, and at that point the challenge looked done. Instead the Steamers produced the best 25 minutes of their season. Benet Kumeroa had scored on the halftime hooter and scored again in the 56th minute. Lucas Cashmore went over in the 50th and Reon Paul in the 61st. Jason Robertson kicked all four conversions, and with 14 minutes to play the scores were locked at 28 apiece with the shield sitting on a table beside a stadium full of people who had come to watch it stay put.
Canterbury found the answer through Toby Bell, who scored in the 71st minute to put them back in front by five. There were still nervous moments to come. A try to Andrew Knewstubb was ruled out, which would have settled the result, and Canterbury had to defend to the finish instead.
The arithmetic of the game is worth a look, because it was not decided by goalkicking. Robertson was perfect from the tee for Bay of Plenty, four conversions from four. Knewstubb landed four from five for Canterbury. The difference on the scoreboard was simply that Canterbury scored five tries and Bay of Plenty scored four. On a day when a visiting side kicked flawlessly and still lost, the margin came down to one more visit to the tryline.
Canterbury took the shield a week earlier, beating Otago 19-15 at Forsyth Barr Stadium in Dunedin on 9 August. That win, covered by NEWS WIRE at the time in this report on the Otago match, was Canterbury’s 18th holding of the shield, which is a record. Auckland are next on 16. Saturday was the first Ranfurly Shield match played at the new Christchurch stadium, and the first defence of this reign.
Bay of Plenty came south carrying more history than most challengers. Their shield record is poor by any measure. RugbyPass reported ahead of the match that the Steamers have won just two of 25 Ranfurly Shield matches in more than a century of trying, a run that includes the 2004 win over Auckland and one successful defence against Waikato a week later before Canterbury took the shield off them at Baypark in September of that year.
The players knew it. Number eight Nikora Broughton told RugbyPass the 2004 side had made themselves felt in the build-up. “We’ve had some visits and messages from members of the 2004 team. It’s pretty inspirational. Times might have changed, the Shield hasn’t,” he said. On Canterbury, Broughton was blunt about what was coming. “We know what type of team Canterbury is, tough and consistent. We’re focusing on playing our game.”
Steamers head coach Richard Watt, who told SunLive before the game that this was his third shield challenge as a coach in 13 years, framed it as an occasion rather than just another round of the competition. “It’s a one-off, very rare event, so we’ve just got to embrace it, and lap up the history of it all,” he said. Captain Naitoa Ah Kuoi told the same outlet that “the Ranfurly is definitely something that’s helping keep the game alive”, and said the squad had spent the week trying to be one percent better each day.
On the evidence of the second half, they got close enough to make Canterbury sweat. The Steamers had beaten Northland 34-31 in the opening round of the competition, so the form was there, and for a quarter of an hour on Saturday they had the shield genuinely in reach.
Canterbury do not get long to enjoy it. Northland arrive in Christchurch on Thursday 20 August for the second defence of the reign, a five-day turnaround that gives the holders very little recovery time after a match that went to the final minutes. Northland sit in the upper half of the table after three rounds, and they will have watched Saturday’s second half with some interest.
Canterbury are also the defending national champions, having beaten Otago 36-28 in the 2025 final, and are now carrying both the title and the shield through a competition where they have already been stretched. The Ranfurly Shield record shows Canterbury with more successful defences than any other union, 143 across their 18 holdings. Number 144 was harder work than the halftime score suggested.
Full match coverage is available from RNZ Sport.
Did Bay of Plenty deserve more from that second half, and can Canterbury hold the shield through a short week against Northland? Leave a comment below and tell us what you thought of the game.
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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