'Mission: Improbable' for Hawkes Bay

Ian MacRae scoring in Graham Williams tackle, 1969. Picture supplied by NZ Rugby Museum

There's little on the outside to suggest it will be anything other than small-time rugby business as usual in Napier tonight. Even the ceremonial opening for the Air New Zealand Cup has had a blade put through it.

Former Hawkes Bay All Blacks Ian McRae and Blair Furlong were to have dropped a match ball from a helicopter before the Magpies kicked off the competition against the mid-strength version of Canterbury's dangerous brew at McLean Park. But safety regulations saw to it that the chopper got chopped.

On the inside though - it's a different story.

Brimming with enthusiasm and hope, you might say, as Hawkes Bay contemplates a return to a revamped top division, having missed the boat when professional rugby sailed in during the mid-1990s.

No one needs reminding of Hawkes Bay's proud rugby history, which includes providing 40-odd All Blacks. But that trickled to a halt 20 years ago when the best talent headed out of town.

For years, provinces like Hawkes Bay were Davids who sharpened Goliath's sword. Now, as the story goes, they've been given a few more pebbles to sling thanks to a salary cap, and maybe even a new mood that believes a rugby revival in the provinces is something worth fighting for.

Are we being sold a dud, a PR exercise in rooting for the grass roots, or is a genuine new era of eagerly-awaited provincial battles really upon us? The doubters will plump for the dud right now - but we can live in hope.

There are those of us hoping against hope that provincial rugby, which beats strongest in the heart for many, can reclaim lost ground from the Super 14, which trots to places on the globe that we don't care about.

If the Air New Zealand Cup is to succeed against the odds, then much will depend on teams like Hawkes Bay finding formulas which enable them to overcome enormous odds to halt the semifinal familiarity which has caused the discontent.

Not that overt confidence is being trumpeted around the streets of Napier. One sign sags across a main road, announcing Magpies rugby. The famous black and white hoops appear only in the odd shop window.

The posters, small and infrequent, battle for space with ads like the one for a show featuring the "Hilarious Hypnotist".

Not that art-deco land's shopping district is an ideal place for footy fever to sprout any more. There is an array of superb cafes here and homespun shops as well.

But Napier can foot it with the best of them when it comes to chain stores, those cheap and cheerless places that turn anywhere into nowhere.

An informal poll on tonight's game produced a full range of results. One punter assured me that the return of Hawkes Bay to rugby's top flight was the talk of the town; that, on the tough love principal, an opening assignment against Canterbury was the perfect place to start. Another was adamant that the financial backers were serious troops around town who weren't in it for charity. But yet another assured me that the build-up and publicity had been sparse, "nothing untoward" as he put it.

Another thought it "lunacy"' that Hawkes Bay would face the power of Canterbury first up, and had struggled to detect much excitement or optimism. If it is lunacy, than it is self-induced.

As Hawkes Bay chief executive Mike Bishop explained, his union pushed the New Zealand Rugby Union into giving them a high-profile home start so they would have a focal point for eight months of build-up.

Canterbury are a tough opening assignment. They are stacked with Super 14 players already in the swing of things this year, and with a sprinkling of test men to boot, and the form book suggest they could run up a cricket score on this multi-purpose ground.

On the face of it, Hawkes Bay are merely a hotted-up version of the side that has dominated the second division, the boosters tonight being former All Blacks Danny Lee and Nathan Mauger and fringe Highlander Matt Berquist - all backs.

On the body though, there are changes.

Semi-professional they are calling it, and under a new regime players such as flanker Michael Johnson have bulked up considerably.

They've fired salvos as well, winning pre-season matches against Bay of Plenty, Manawatu and Taranaki.

The Magpies are full of fulltime workers - Lee owns a cafe franchise, there are farm workers, teachers, students, etc. Around this paid employment, the players have attended nine training sessions a week (including three for their clubs) which often means a 6am start in the gym, a day of work, and then a night training session.

Bishop says all the employers have been most accommodating in giving players leave or reduced hours as the competition approaches.

The union has also had to stump up, raising its annual income from $2.8 million to $4.5 million through a growing list of sponsors - while keeping ticket prices to $20 maximum - to support the player wage bill.

As the new theory goes, the up-and-coming talent in places such as Hawkes Bay will be able to rise to the top without leaving home.

Hawkes Bay have already signed up young players such as the heralded fullback Israel Dagg, who by the recent convention of New Zealand rugby would already be settling in to a flat near Cathedral Square by now. (Dagg is missing through injury for tonight's match).

Whether Canterbury, Auckland, Wellington and co will really let the best of the country's talent remain in the back blocks is yet to be seen. You would have to doubt it.

Bay of Plenty have provided inspiration for the strugglers and stragglers by their sporadic lowering of famous foes. They have nipped across the moat now and then without storming the castle.

What provincial rugby really needs is an upstart who makes it right to the top floor, rather than making the odd trip up from the basement. Yet there is a determined glint in the eye around Hawkes Bay HQ which suggest they believe the seemingly impossible is possible.

The new competition is about the long haul rather than opening night fireworks, but a rip-roaring upset in the opening round would give it a much-welcomed bang.

Hawkes Bay coach Brendon Ratcliffe says his squad will have to rely heavily on spirit in the inaugural season, and that after years of promotion-relegation heartache the team and province is rallying to the cause.

He reckoned that "Canterbury will have to massively underperform and we will have to massively over-perform" if an upset win is to be scored. But he adds, "These things have happened in the past."

Ah, yes. The past. If only ...