Ash Dixon captures the moment as the Magpies return home with the Ranfurly Shield after beating Counties Manukau in 2014. Photo / File
Ash Dixon captures the moment as the Magpies return home with the Ranfurly Shield after beating Counties Manukau in 2014. Photo / File
The Hawke's Bay Magpies have to quickly get over celebrating a big win over Canterbury with a Ranfurly Shield rugby challenge now looming next-up against Otago.
The crack at the famed Log o' Wood in Dunedin next Sunday materialised only when Otago beat Taranaki 30-19 in Inglewood on Sunday.
Itcame just 19 hours after a 20-19, post-siren triumph in the Magpies Mitre 10 Cup premiership-championship crossover match which gave Hawke's Bay its first win over Canterbury in 38 years.
The new challenge brings back memories of another of the great Magpies victories, another 20-19, last-minute (converted) try win when Hawke's Bay beat Otago in 2013 to win the Ranfurly Shield for the first time in 44 years.
In the Magpies team that day, celebrating his 25th birthday, was hooker Ash Dixon, who on Saturday captained the team to the latest win, scoring the crucial try as the game stretched into a third minute after the siren.
Hawke's Bay's hold on the shield in 2013 lasted just six days before they were beaten by Counties Manukau in the first defence.
He was also there when Hawke's Bay won the shield back from Counties Manukau with a 27-21 win in Pukekohe a year later. The Magpies hammered Otago 41-0 in the first of the 11 defences before losing to Waikato at the end of the 2015 season.
Dixon has played more than 100 matches for Hawke's Bay, and for Dunedin-based Super Rugby side the Highlanders, which he also captains.
Among others with a foot in both camps is Hawke's Bay Rugby Union board member Danny Gough, who confessed during today's game he's a "Dunedin-boy" from way back but that he'll have to wear the black and white of the union hierarchy for next week's game.
Donning an Otago jersey to head down for a celebratory pint is just about as Otago as it gets at the Speight's Ale House on West Quay in Napier. He conceded the same jersey might be underneath the union blazer if he gets back to Dunedin next weekend.
