One of Pinetree's great games - in Napier

Neil Thimbleby on tour in South Africa in 1970, the tour in which Colin Meads played on with a broken arm. Photo / File

One of the great battles of Hawke's Bay's 1966-67 Ranfurly Shield was being recalled last night as New Zealand and the rugby world prepared to farewell All Blacks great Sir Colin "Pinetree" Meads, who died yesterday, aged 81.

The match was Meads' King Country challenge against the Magpies at McLean Park, Napier, on August 9, 1969, just a few weeks before the end of one of the longest tenures in the history of the famed Log o' Wood.

It was also a time when New Zealand rugby out was being buoyed by what was going out in the provinces, most notably with a trio of the tough forward pack which helped the All Blacks go unbeaten for almost five years from a loss to South Africa in Christchurch in 1965 to the first test on the All Blacks' 1970 tour of South Africa.

There was Meads, captain and Wairarapa farmer Brian Lochore, and Hawke's Bay flanker Kel Tremain, who died in 1992, aged just 54.

The 1969 match was recalled yesterday by Hawke's Bay Rugby Union patron Neil Thimbleby who was propping for the Magpies that day under the captaincy of Tremain and who would become an All Black on the 1970 tour on which Meads, famously, played on after breaking an arm.

Part of the background to the game was that King Country hadn't, and still haven't, held the shield, thereby holding it aloft as a winning captain being one of the few rugby achievements unable to be included in the Meads CV.

But another was the player relationships, and Mr Thimbleby said: "He and Tremain were great mates, you see."

The Magpies appeared to again have the log o' wood in safekeeping for another week when they led 19-6 early in the second half. But the Meads leadership brought about a transformation and with two converted tries, back in the days when tries were just three points each, it became anyone's game again, before the Magpies were able to claim a 19-16 victory.

It was to spark a number of legends about The Legend, including one that has it that one of the touch judges asked the referee to count the number of Hawke's Bay players on the field, saying: "I think Meads might have eaten one."

Not quite the full story though, Mr Thimbleby saying yesterday: "It was me that started that one off. At one point Pinetree had a bit of blood around his chops, so I said to the referee I think you'd better count the players - I think Meads might've scoffed one of them."

It was in South Africa, though, that Mr Thimbleby saw Sir Colin at his finest.

"On that tour up till the time he broke his arm he had to have been playing the best rugby of his career. He was absolutely dynamic."

But the injury barely stopped him, and Mr Thimbleby said: "He had this squash ball in his hand, pumping it away. I reckon he had it 26 hours a day. He was absolutely committed."