Dream team contest for rugby jubilee

Taranaki rugby's 125th jubilee celebrations are likely to centre on a home match against Canterbury next September.

Plans for the jubilee are starting to take shape and include a contest to pick a Taranaki "dream team" made up of players from the past 125 years.

A judging panel, consisting of journalists and rugby historians Bob Howitt and Lindsay Knight, as well as Sky commentator Tony Johnson, will finalise the best 15 from a short-list provided.

Jubilee spokesman Lindsay Thomson said the Taranaki Rugby Football Union had put in a request with the New Zealand Rugby Union and Sky Television for Taranaki to play Canterbury in an Air New Zealand Cup match on Saturday, September 18 at 2.30pm.

"We thought Canterbury are the benchmark and what better way to celebrate than put us against the best."

A jubilee committee has been working since May on the project and has penciled in functions for the Friday and Saturday nights, while golf tournaments and auctions are also planned.

"What we are trying to do is get public interest behind the whole thing," Thomson said. "At the end of the day it's not just about Taranaki A rugby players, it's about the whole rugby community. It's about referees, Taranaki Maori, Taranaki secondary schools, primary, age-group teams, the whole lot."

Thomson said the "dream team" competition would hopefully generate huge interest in the province, which has provided a player from each position to the All Blacks.

"We want the public discussing Taranaki rugby. What we are trying to do is create the debate."

Commemorative jerseys will be worn by the Taranaki players against Canterbury before they are auctioned off that night. A jubilee book, focusing more on the past 25 years of Taranaki rugby, will also be penned.

"When you look at it there has been a huge amount happen in that period," Thomson said.

"We've had the transition from the amateur to the professional game, the redevelopment of Yarrow Stadium and the Ranfurly Shield win in 1996."