Ranfurly Shield hero Wilson had no doubt

NATHAN BURDON

Stags hero James Wilson had no doubt his Ranfurly Shield-winning 76th-minute drop goal was going to go over.

Wilson, who ended Saturday's successful challenge against Canterbury in Christchurch with a personal haul of 17 points in the 22-19 win, was not even supposed to be doing the goal kicking at Rugby Park but it was his boot that would ultimately prove to be the difference between two desperate teams.

The Stags trailed Canterbury 16-6 half an hour into their challenge and only took the lead with 18 minutes to go, when Southland halfback Scott Cowan scored his team's only try.

Even with 10 minutes to go, Canterbury had one hand on the shield with the score at 19-all with a draw enough to retain the log o' wood before Wilson lined up a drop goal from a handy position.

The pot looked good off the boot, but a Canterbury hand knocked it off track.

"It was definitely touched and it just changed the spin on it and it missed by probably a foot," Wilson said.

"I was stoked to get another opportunity. I definitely wasn't going to miss that."

The Stags do not have a set play based around the drop kick, but Wilson likes to practise it anyway.

"I've had plenty of practice at doing droppies. I'm always trying to show off at training and I'm always trying to do them from 50m out so I just hit that one like I was 50m out.

"I knew if I smacked it, it would stay straight; it didn't matter if it was wobbly, it would go straight," he said.

"Because I had that first one, I think it gave me the belief to hit that next one. I was just stoked to get the opportunity."

Five minutes after his first attempt, Southland won a 5m scrum courtesy of a Matt Saunders chargedown in Canterbury's in-goal area.

The ball was passed back to Wilson, who slammed it between the posts for a three-point lead with 3:20 left on the clock.

The time left was actually extended by an official who came up to the box containing the scoreboard controller with 4:20 to go to say the timing was out by 60 seconds.

Southland spent the final two minutes crashing the ball up.

Wilson was not supposed to be doing the goal kicking.

Having missed his first attempt, fullback Robbie Robinson, who landed the winning goals when Southland took the shield from Canterbury in 2009, was troubled by a hip injury and he handed the tee to Wilson, who pulled his first shot left.

"It was a bit of a surprise [to be kicking]. That first one I was a bit disappointed with, because when we were warming up I was hitting them to the left as well, so I made a wee adjustment and was striking them pretty sweet from then on, so I was stoked."

Wilson put the credit for the win on the Southland forward pack, who spent much of the second half hammering away at the Canterbury goal line.

"You line our forwards up against theirs, I reckon ours are stronger, especially around the close-quarter stuff.

"I was telling them to keep chipping away and they were making inroads. Full credit to their defence, they were stopping us getting over the line, they held up [John Hardie] over the line, but we just kept plugging away."

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