Canterbury grind down Wellington to retain Shield

Conrad Smith (left) and Ben Blair in action during the Ranfurly Shield challenge tonight. Ross Land / Getty Images

A combination of staunch Canterbury defence and Ben Blair's boot saw the Ranfurly Shield holders repel Wellington's challenge with a 15-14 victory in Christchurch tonight.

Fullback Blair, who kicked Canterbury to victory in their 31-29 win over Wellington in 2001, again proved to be the visitors nemesis, scoring all of Canterbury's points with five penalties.

Wellington scored the only try of the match in the 12th minute through Lome Fa'atau, but their own poor handling cost them any chance of winning at Jade Stadium.

Wellington led 11-6 at halftime, but as they did in last week's shield match against Waikato, Canterbury showed great patience and choking defence which snuffed out Wellington's attack while forcing mistakes.

In the closing minutes Canterbury ground down the visitors by retaining possession for 21 phases.

With the shield safe until Auckland's challenge on October 8, Canterbury also pocketed four valuable NPC points to extend their lead on 29.

Wellington took one point from the match to remain in third place on 21 points, but are in danger of being overtaken by Otago and North Harbour who play this weekend.

Tonight's encounter failed to live up to the pre-match hype with poor skill levels, mostly from Wellington, spoiling any chance of a free-flowing spectacle.

For long periods Wellington strung together numerous phases, especially in the first half, but too often the delivery to the backline was too slow.

They persisted in one-off charges around the ruck which the well- organised Canterbury defence managed to quell.

Wellington last held the shield in 1982 and they went to Christchurch in high spirits after crushing Southland by 50 points last week, but the drought will continue for some time.

Wellington started promisingly with overwhelming dominance of possession and field position in the opening 10 minutes.

It finally paid dividends when winger Fa'atau dived onto Piri Weepu's grubber kick to give the visitors a well-deserved lead.

The remainder of the scoring in the first half was restricted to Jimmy Gopperth and Blair bagging two penalties each.

After the break Gopperth and Blair again traded penalities, but from there Canterbury began to apply the pressure, and with Blair finding his range, they whittled away the deficit.

Blair's final kick in the 67th minute was enough to see them through to another successful shield defence.

Canterbury 15 (Ben Blair 5 pen)

Wellington 14 (Lome Fa'atau try; Jimmy Gopperth 3 pen).

Halftime: 6-11.

- NZPA