Sideline Conversions 2 October (some rugby news and information to start the week)

Old Timers’ Day at the Stadium on Saturday. Wellington’s loss to Hawke’s Bay was their first in 10 games at this venue. Their last defeat before Saturday was also against Hawke’s Bay. Photo: Andy McArthur. Photo galleries HERE

Monday afternoon updates: 

Big news late yesterday when it was revealed that the Hawke’s Bay Magpies had completed a smash and grab of the Ranfurly Shield, or should that be grab and smash?

It was reported late Sunday that it had been dropped on a concrete floor (as seen in the Twitter video by Poneke rugby commentator Jamie Wall below – watch the short video to assess the damage yourself):

Looks like Hawkes Bay had a fun night with the shield pic.twitter.com/D4M0KfTADi

— Jamie Wall (@JamieWall2) October 1, 2023

Gutted for this man – https://clubrugby.nz/wp/2023/09/12/james-dwan-ranfurly-shield-repair-man/ who recently rebuilt the Shield following 118 years of wear and tear by the old shield.

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UPDATED: Claims that drugs were snorted off the Ranfurly Shield. https://www.stuff.co.nz/sport/rugby/provincial/300980963/new-zealand-rugby-investigating-claims-drugs-were-snorted-from-ranfurly-shield?fbclid=IwAR3TVYv0puihBmiz_kn1TiMUj0tshWeCLQBAWT_yniKk4YKV0L4sCqcA9Ng

UPDATED 2: A Hawke’s Bay player has been charged by police as the fallout continues from the team’s successful Ranfurly Shield challenge against Wellington on Saturday. https://www.nzherald.co.nz/sport/ranfurly-shield-new-zealand-rugby-investigating-shared-photo-of-white-powder-on-broken-ranfurly-shield/4IRCVXNWOJE37DK7RVZM4HBQH4/

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Credit to Hawke’s Bay for winning the Ranfurly Shield and ending the Lions’ 19-match NPC streak (21 games overall), just a shame for provincial rugby purists that the streak ended in Saturday’s game and not in the playoffs. Others might disagree, but here at Club Rugby we would have preferred the Lions to end this season as RS holders and not NPC champions if given a choice.

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A week in which “the Ranfurly” was lost, but “the Don Broughton” was won.

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Waiting for news from the WRFU of their ‘Special General Meeting’ that was held last Wednesday.

This was to present the financial statements following their AGM sans this information held several months ago. Reports of a ‘small loss’ – but assuming they will release this information in the near future. Up to the relatively recent past this would have been presented by the union as a website story/media release, but obviously those days are gone.

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Top-seeded the Wellington Lions, second-placed Taranaki, third-placed Canterbury and fourth placed Bay of Plenty will host NPC quarter-finals this coming weekend.

The Steamers were the big winners yesterday, climbing from eighth to fourth.

The Lions will play Waikato, Taranaki will host Tasman, Canterbury will entertain Auckland and BoP will host Hawke’s Bay to decide who the real Bay is over the summer.

Details of these matches to be confirmed, but perhaps the Wellington Lions match (see below) could be the curtain-raiser to the Whanganui one, and the Cooks Gardens DJ could really open up the sound system and let it rip. Could be an exciting day.

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Wellington fans can be weary of Waikato who have run into some good form of late. They ended their round-robin with a 37-35 win over Canterbury, which followed a 47-7 demolition of Otago and a 27-12 win over Auckland. Their last loss? A month ago against Wellington, going down 24-41.

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There are four Hurricanes region unions in this coming weekend’s Heartland Championship semi-finals, with two hosting matches. These matches are (home team first):

• Meads Cup 1 v 4: South Canterbury v Ngāti Porou East Coast
• Meads Cup 2 v 3: Whanganui v Thames Valley
• Lochore Cup: 5 v 8: North Otago v Poverty Bay
• Lochore Cup: 6 v 7: Wairarapa-Bush v West Coast

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Top effort from Thames Valley on Saturday, beating Ngāti Porou East Coast 31-26 and raising $16,200 for Goldfields School in a charity auction of their jerseys.

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He was playing locally until a couple of weeks ago, but Wellington U19s and Petone prop Ben Kershaw has moved  to Western Australia to link up with the Force U19s. He is over there in a short-term move and came off their bench in a 48-5 win over the Rebels U19s.

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How come Georgia aren’t in the Six Nations but Italy is? Georgia would be a good addition, in place of Italy who are uncompetitive and perhaps should stick to football, pasta and Roman Empire tourism. In their last game in July 2022, Georgia beat Italy 28-19.

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Are Scotland dark horses to take down Ireland and be the All Blacks’ quarter-finals opponents?

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NPC Leaders:

• Tackles: Tom Christie, Canterbury (152)
• Points: Fergus Burke, Canterbury (109)
• Tries: Heremaia Murray, Northland (8)
• Metres: Roger Tuivasa-Sheck, Auckland (911)
• Carries: Roger Tuivasa-Sheck, Auckland (125)
• Defenders Beaten: Roger Tuivasa-Sheck, Auckland (52)
• Clean Breaks: Heremaia Murray, Northland (12)
• Passes: Kemara Hauiti-Parapara, Wellington (611)
• Offloads: Shaun Stevenson, North Harbour (20)

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Manawatu‘s season limped to its sad conclusion in windy Palmerston North yesterday afternoon. Wracked by injuries, the Turbos blew a gasket a few weeks ago following their mighty midweek win over Auckland at Eden Park and never recovered. So much talent coming out of Manawatu (way more than Wellington at the moment on a national age-grade teams scale), so here’s hoping for their fans and wider Hurricanes supporters that they come right in the near future.

We never did get a straight answer as to why Manawatu could or would not field an U18 team this year. Presumably it was for financial reasons, as it certainly wouldn’t have been for lack of talent.

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Southland‘s first win away from Invercargill since 2015. Southland’s first win in Palmerston North since 2010.

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We almost saw our first penalty in the NPC for Chahooing – watch short clip here (Facebook won’t let us embed this one sorry):  https://www.facebook.com/watch/?v=1082116622771792&extid=NS-UNK-UNK-UNK-AN_GK0T-GK1C&ref=sharing&mibextid=6aamW6 

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Confirmation required, but we have been told that the American Ambassador’s WRFU 7s series is being held over two weekends in early November, and the annual Condor 7s is being played at Naenae College on Labour Day Monday as per normal.

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In rugby league news, the Panthers won their third NRL title in a row this weekend. Imagine Nathan Cleary playing Union?

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Southland Stags lock Mike McKee would go well in the Swindale Shield.

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Argentina and Chile became the first South American sides to play against each other at the Rugby World Cup. Argentina won 59-5 to improve their record to 41-0 against Chile.

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Australia battled to a 34-10 win over Portugal overnight. Portugal led 7-5 in the first half, before a yellow card helped turn the game in Australia’s favour.

What is going on pic.twitter.com/wIce4fBR79

— Kitsie's Misfits (@loosest_the) September 30, 2023