Ranfurly Shield hottest ticket in town

WHERE IT BELONGS: Southland Stags captain Jamie Mackintosh shows the Ranfurly Shield to the thousands gathered outside the Civic Theatre after the ticker-tape parade in Invercargill.

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The New Zealand Rugby Union is so impressed with the way Southland has embraced the Ranfurly Shield it has offered to send the Bledisloe Cup down to Invercargill as well.

The Shield has created a business of its own for Rugby Southland since the Stags broke a 50-year hoodoo with victory over Canterbury last month.

The union has had to employ a staffer three days a week to back up commercial manager Caroline Wethey-Te Whetu, and several suppliers have been brought on board to help produce a range of commercial products.

During the next month Rugby Southland will be involved in a book produced by The Southland Times, a Ranfurly Shield jersey and T-shirt by Canterbury Clothing, an Invercargill Licensing Trust luncheon, a special wine release with the ILT, lapel badges and personalised posters.

Despite the commercial activity, Rugby Southland would not reap a massive financial windfall from the Shield, Ms Wethey-Te Whetu said.

"At this stage everything has cost us money, because we haven't seen any benefits yet. With all these (products), they are not our core business so we've got other people whose core business it is to do them. We'll get a small percentage of the profit, but for us to try and do those things direct would have been an absolute nightmare."

Ms Wethey-Te Whetu said the greatest return from the Shield would be the unquantifiable goodwill it had created in the community.

That included a hectic schedule of appearances for the Shield, which will continue into the new year.

A quick scan down the booking sheet for the Log of Wood is exhausting.

The Shield is booked out until the Bluff Oyster Festival on May 22.

This week alone it will move around on an almost hourly basis.

Ms Wethey-Te Whetu said the impact the Shield has had on Southland had not gone unnoticed by other provinces, or the NZRU, which had seen the merit of getting its trophies out of the cabinet at its Wellington headquarters and out among the public.

Rugby Southland chief executive Roger Clark said one rule had been established from the outset regarding the Shield.

That was that if one of the players wanted the Shield for something, he would take precedence over anything else.

"If a player wants to take it away for a coffee, then that's fine. If it weren't for them it wouldn't be here."

Meanwhile, Southland's first two Shield challenges have been arranged, subject to confirmation by the NZRU. They will be against Lochore Cup winners North Otago on July 9 and Meads Cup champions Wanganui on July 23.

nathan.burdon@stl.co.nz

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