Ranfurly Shield Match Savers: Wellington v Hawke’s Bay 1982

The Match: Wellington v Hawke’s Bay, 21 August 1982

Referee: Bob Francis (Wairarapa-Bush)

Conditions: Fine and breezy.

Crowd: 32,000.

The Result:  Wellington 13 – Hawke’s Bay 12

The Teams:

Match Notes:

In 1981, Wellington became the first union to do the NPC-Ranfurly Shield double in the same year.

They locked both away for the summer, returning in early 1982 to defend it twice against lower ranked teams, Marlborough (winning 31-6) and Whanganui (30-9) before very nearly coming unstuck against Hawke’s Bay in this match.

Indeed, the bumper Athletic Crowd left late this afternoon thanking the heavens that their side had survived and lived to defend the Shield another day.

Two quickfire tries to All Blacks wing Bernie Fraser and a big piece of defence in the dying minutes won the game.

Wellington had the wind in the first half, but failed to make much of it. Wellington trailed the Magpies 6-3 with only a few minutes left to halftime. Fraser scored his first try from a move from a lineout on the Millard Stand side that saw centre Jamie Salmon make a half break and offload to Fraser who scooped up a dusty pass and crossed in his corner. Shortly after the re-start, Wellington went wide from a ruck on halfway to Fraser who kick and chased from 40 metres out for a try in the same corner. Fullback Allan Hewson kicked the sideline conversion and Wellington led 13-6 at halftime.

The second half was all Hawke’s Bay, who attacked vigorously and consistently but Wellington’s defence held fast, despite being Hawke’s Bay dominating the lineouts and much of the loose play, with Wellington missing previous year’s flanker and captain Paul Quinn and experienced lock Brendon Gard’ner who had a broken leg. They finally scored a converted try through No. 8 Ray Falcon with about 10 minutes to play to trail just 13-12.

The final 10 minutes were tense and nail-biting, both for the home fans and the 10,000-strong visiting supporters.

Hawke’s Bay had three chances to win. Two were from failed dropped goals, with five-eighths Brian Morris and Mark Taylor both missing dropped goal attempts. Then, almost at the end, Hawke’s Bay wing Laurie made a clean break with the tryline apparently open to him. But in desperation, Wellington halfback John Heale and flanker Paul Williams cut him down and dragged him over the sideline about 15 metres short of the Wellington line.

They said:

“For almost 10 minutes Wellington Rugby fans who could remember their team’s Ranfurly Shield challenge in 1967 could see the nightmare coming true again.

“A Blair Furlong dropped goal denied Wellington the Shield 15 years ago, the match ending in a 12-12 draw and Hawke’s Bay holding on to it for another two seasons.

“A Mark Taylor and Brian Morris attempted to kick the dropped goals that would have turned the 13-12 deficit into a fairytale win many spectators couldn’t look.

“There was nothing easy about this Bay side. It went out breathing fire, determined to justify the enormous confidence shown by its 10,000 supporters who had followed it from the Bay, and had it managed to score a try in the first 20 minutes of the second half the Shield would surely be back in Napier by now.”

-Paul Elanio, Rugby News report.

Aftermath:

Wellington fans didn’t have much longer to celebrate as Ranfurly Shield holders.

A week later they lost 9-28 to Manawatu and the week following defended the Shield one last time in this tenure against Taranaki. Bernie Fraser scored another two tries and Murray Mexted a third in a 19-6 win.

Fraser (2), Mexted and lock Gerard Wilkinson scored tries in a 27-12 win over BoP, then there was a 10-14 loss to Counties – both matches away.

Then came Canterbury. The red and blacks came to town on 18 September and beat Wellington 16-12 to win the Ranfurly Shield. First five Wayne Smith sprinted clear to score the match-winning try. Wellington wouldn’t see it again until 2008.

The defending champions Wellington slumped to sixth in the NPC.