Ross Shield: Fresh crop of talent to sprout from fertile patch

Will it be the turn of hosts Wairoa to lift the Ross Shield this week? Photo / Supplied

With the Ranfurly Shield doing its rounds it's sometimes quite easy to forget where the seeds of success are sown in a rugby province.

In Hawke's Bay, there's no doubt it germinates from the hotbed of another piece of log, albeit it not tipping the scale of significance as heavily as the country's Log o' Wood.

The Ross Shield is where the talent of the region first surfaces, regardless of whether a team wins or loses.

Think Josh Kronfeld (Hastings), Greg Somerville (Wairoa), Israel Dagg (Hastings East) and John Timu (Dannevirke), to name a few, and you start getting a clearer picture of that nursery.

"It's a great starting point," Dannevirke co-coach Nigel Castles said last night from Wairoa as the six teams prepared to lock horns in the annual tournament to decide the symbol of primary/intermediate schoolboys' (and the odd schoolgirl) supremacy.

This year Courtez Te Pou, of Hastings Intermediate, is in the Hastings East mix when the tourney kicks off today.

While Timu is Dannevirke born and bred, Castles said some of the Paewai family members were also prominent in playing from the Bay town before they went on to ply their rugby trade for the Hawke's Bay Magpies as well the Maori All Blacks.

The Magpies will be defending the Ranfurly Shield at McLean Park, Napier, in a 7.35pm kick off against a wounded Wellington Lions outfit tomorrow.

The shield has been doing the rounds in the nooks and corners of the Bay province after two successful defences since the Magpies wrested it off Counties-Manukau on August 30.

Castles said Dannevirke were "up against it" this year in the Ross Shield tourney but quite often they won it in a cyclical phase with Central Hawke's Bay and Wairoa also etching their names on it.

"Hastings and Napier are predominantly stronger but the others punch above their weight over the city teams. It's a generation thing," he said, recalling Dannevirke's last victory in 1987 in Waipukurau.

"Roger Randle was in the Hastings team in those days when there was only one Hastings team and Taupo were competing before they bowed out in 1989," Castles fondly recalled.

He felt the rural teams found themselves in the periphery compared with the townies in training and selection.

"But the shield is not always about who will win but also about turning up, billeting and having lots of fun," Castles said of the five-day tournament that ends with pomp and ceremony on Saturday.

2014draws

For the five-day 2014 Wattie's Ross Shield Rugby Tournament starting in Wairoa from today:
Today
• 12.30pm: Wairoa v Dannevirke, ref M Edwards.
• 2pm: Napier v Hastings East, ref M Wiki.
• 3.30pm: Central HB v Hastings West B, ref Clement.
Tomorrow
• 11.30am: Napier v Dannevirke, ref S Moore.
• 1pm: Wairoa v Hastings West, S Moore.
• 2.30pm: Hastings East v Central HB, M Edwards.
Thursday
• 11am: Hastings East v Hastings West, S Moore.
• 12.30pm: Central HB v Dannevirke, M Edwards.
• 2pm: Wairoa v Napier, S Moore.
Friday
• 11am: Napier v Central HB, G Fisher.
• 12.30pm: Wairoa v Hastings East, J McFarland
• 2pm: Dannevirke v Hastings West, M Hantz.
Saturday
• 11am: Hastings East v Dannevirke, J McFarland.
• 12.30pm: Wairoa v Central HB, J Waugh.
• 2pm: Hastings West v Napier, M Hantz.