Lots of laughs, but winning every game is exhausting

Press, 2 January 1985, Page 20 (Supplement)

Lots of laughs, but winning every game is exhausting

The Canterbury rugby team has repelled 19 challenges since it took the Ranfurly Shield from Wellington late in the 1982 season. Within sight is the record of 25 held by Auckland. KEVIN McMENAMIN reports.

For the holding province, life with the Ranfurly Shield is a barrel of laughs. But for the players entrusted with the task of defending it week after week, the going is anything but easy. By the end of last winter the Canterbury team was physically and mentally exhausted. Anyone poking his nose into the team’s dressing room after any of the last three games could well have wondered if he had not taken a wrong turning and was in the loser’s room. It says much for Canterbury’s resolve and determination that it was able to survive those last three testing challenges, from Waikato, Counties, and Bay Of Plenty, and still have the shield to defend again this year. It has now repelled 19 challenges since it took the trophy from Wellington late in the 1982 season. Within sight is the record of 25 held by Auckland. The prospects must be good of the 25 being equalled this year. Notable, to say the least, would be a winning twentysixth defence, coming as it would against the arch foe, Auckland. Retaining the shield for any length of time is not about winning the easy games in grand style; it is surviving the two or three cliff-hangers that come along each year. This Canterbury has done, with the luck of the brave.

In each of the three years that Canterbury has held the shield one game has very nearly gone the other way. In 1982 it was against Counties, when a late goal by Robbie Deans saved Canterbury; in 1983 Manawatu had Canterbury at its mercy, but could not deliver the

knockout blow; and in 1984 the Bay of Plenty prop, Peter Kennnedy, failed by no more than six inches to score a last minute try, which, if converted, would have ended the reign. It would not have been a difficult kick.

There is no denying that Canterbury played good shield rugby in 1984. It has learnt how to absorb the early pressure that is the aim of any challenger, grab the scoring chances when they come, and play the last quarter with a close eye on the scoreboard and the clock.

Such tactics did not always produce brilliant rugby, and it is true that Canterbury was not the slick and attractive side, particularly in the scoring of tries, that it was in 1983. There were other reasons for this, not the least of them being that the defensive attitudes of the challengers made open back play hard to mount, and even more difficult to. maintain.

To its credit, though, Canterbury always tried to employ its backs and there was one glorious day when it played the sort of rugby theorists dream about. This was the 44-3 win against Otago, a side which may have suffered a little from stage fright, but a useful one nevertheless.

It was a game in which Canterbury simply did everything right, and a fear that Otago could be a tough nut undoubtedly put the side in the right frame of mind. It was the one home game all year when the coach, Alex Wyllie, was not at odds with the news media about their confidence that Canterbury would win. The eight shield games apart, it was an up and down year for Canterbury. Only one game was lost. Auckland’s 32-3 victory at Eden Park was too decisive for any excuses, and a draw against Manawatu was an object lesson in the folly of giving a modest opponent too much leeway. The Otago game was unquestionably the pinnacle of Canterbury’s season, but there were three excellent early-season

performances, against Wasps, Queensland and Wellington. After that — and the loss of seven players to the All Blacks for two months was a important factor — the team struggled. Even after the All Blacks returned, the play lacked the authority and conviction that had come to be expected of Canterbury. But when the season finally ended in early October, Canterbury still had the Ranfurly Shield, it took second place in the first division national championship and, as the All Black selectors confirmed with their team to visit Fiji, it lacked nothing in the way of top players. Canterbury has had a lot of fun and even after the shield has departed there will be memories of some great games it has inspired. It has also brought a good deal of money, probably millions in one way or another, to the province. Under Alex Wyllie, Canterbury has developed into a closely knit side, as able as any the province has fielded in about 100 years of rugby. The shield is not going to be given away easily, and that is as it should be.