Shield gets emotions stirring

OPINION: Southland is the new home of the Ranfurly Shield, writes Nathan Burdon in this week's Straight Up.

No matter how many times you say it, it never fails to raise a few goosebumps.

There's just something about the Shield that stirs the emotions.

I couldn't tell you who won the NPC five years ago, or even a couple of years ago for that matter, but it's not hard to remember recent Ranfurly Shield upsets.

There haven't been many.

Taranaki, Bay of Plenty and North Harbour pretty much exhaust the list.

Perhaps that's the reason the Shield seems to still be held in such awe in the provinces while the big cities – with the notable exception of Dunedin – have a slightly more relaxed attitude about it.

Christchurch people I've spoken too have been pretty magnanimous about the whole thing. That's something to remember when the Shield eventually departs our province - in about a decade.

It was a strange feeling in the press box at AMI Stadium on Thursday night.

I rarely get too emotional when covering a game, but for the last 10 minutes my hands were shaking so much I couldn't type.

The one other time that's happened to me was during the Sting v Force final in Auckland, the final edition of the National Bank Cup, when Sting came from a seemingly hopeless position to steal the win in the final minutes.

For much of the game those around me, and the people I could hear in the grandstand, were complaining about the quality of the game.

They've been spoilt up there in Canterbury, with so much success that they can demand not just winning rugby, but an attractive game as well.

Sometimes, however, you get neither.

Tomorrow's ticker-tape parade is shaping up to be one of those special Southland occasions.

We've had them before with victorious Sting netball teams, but the Shield just has so much more tradition attached to it.

I hope the very real message people take from Southland's win is that you can achieve anything from the south.

They might like to put us in a box labelled "that place down the bottom with the bad weather" and forget about us, but events like the Stags winning the Ranfurly Shield mean that they can't.

Now that we are into a new week, attention must swing towards Saturday night's semifinal against Wellington.

The Stags should rate their chances in the capital, if they can come down off cloud nine in time to put in some decent preparation.

Wellington remain a flighty team that can be frustrated with a solid defence. The Stags were done in the contact area during the round-robin game, but they should have learnt from that.

Who knows, Hawke's Bay have the game to beat Canterbury on Friday night. If Southland could then get up against Wellington we could then have a final at Rugby Park to look forward to.

Now wouldn't that be something?

» Nathan Burdon has been the Southland Times sports editor since 2003 and has won numerous journalism awards, including provincial sports writer of the year.

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