Shield Goes South
Great to see the Shield go to Southland, 50 years after they last had it.
Amid the largely turgid offerings of the NPC, it’s an obviously stand out moment of the season.
The game itself was nothing to note in terms of entertainment – 9-3 is the type of scoreline we used to laugh about in NZ. And Canterbury’s points came from a dropped goal!!
More so, we used to get wild when Stephen Jones of the Times lauded such contests when we were pining for try-fests.
Sadly, I suspect most of the punters will miss the reality that these types of results are only possible because the AB’s were not playing.
Which of course raises a number of discussion points.
First, how do you think HB are feeling right now? They get within a dodgy linesman (he didn’t assist the referee!) of sharing points with the Cantabs with all their ABs while the following week the Southland get the Shield, four comp points, and with it a place in the Semis against Christchurch’s best club players. Hardly a level playing field.
Second, most people have been lauding the NPC this year for being much more interesting and particularly the achievements of the underdogs. Again, this has come because the AB’s have largely been absent from the comp.
Frankly, the NPC is increasingly sounding and looking like a second-tier competition at best.
It doesn’t undermine the achievements of Southland in winning the Log o’ Wood nor does it reflect badly on their obvious passion.
It just shows that the NPC as our number one rugby competition is a nonsense.