Hundreds of people packed into Hawke's Bay Airport and thousands lined the streets of Napier yesterday to welcome home the Magpies with the coveted Ranfurly Shield in tow.
The parade held yesterday brought thousands of people onto the streets of Napier, lining Tennyson, Hastings, Emerson, Dalton, and Vautier streets as the team carried by a fleet of Hawke's Bay Toyota vehicles brought the shield home.
The four-year-old grandson of legendary All Black Kelvin Tremain - who shares his grandfather's initials - was in attendance at Hawke's Bay Airport, as was former Magpie and All Black Ian MacRae who played in the Shield-winning 6-0 game back on September 24, 1966, and he returned from Dunedin with the team.
Giant imported lock Johan Schoonbee wasn't in the squad that won the Ranfurly Shield, but as a giant among giants the 2-metres-tall South African was the perfect right-hand man when the trophy finally reached what some may say is its spiritual home at McLean Park in Napier yesterday.
Schoonbee, from Cape Town and a South Africa junior Rugby World Cup team member in 2010, could think of nothing to match the enormity of the occasion.