Rugby: A Shield tale of two provinces

North Harbour coach Craig Dowd has meagre resources. Photo / Getty Images

Forget about tonight's Ranfurly Shield challenge being a contrast in styles - it is a contrast in unions.

They share the colour maroon and the fact that they are supposed to be the "junior" unions in their Highlanders and Blues franchises, but there the similarities end.

One union is aspirational, the other is North Harbour.

Southland's rise from NPC also-rans to Ranfurly Shield holders and perennial contenders has been no fluke.

This is not a case of a mid-sized union suddenly churning out an uncommonly good group of players at the same time, before fading.

"It's taken 10 years to get where we are," said Rugby Southland chief executive Roger Clark.

One of the game's most respected administrators, Clark came into the job 12 years ago "on about the same day Mils Muliaina was catching a plane to Auckland".

Having seen homegrown heroes Jeff Wilson and Justin Marshall leave for pastures greener, Clark and his board quickly came to the realisation Southland was never going to going to mix it with the teams that were franchise bases until they could convince "their" players to stay.

There were only two ways to do that: pay the market rate for their talent and convince them that Southland was an aspirational union.

In other words, staying in the south was not going to hurt them financially, or damage their chances of playing Super rugby or higher.

One of the ways they set about proving they meant business was to bring in talented players from outside the region to cover areas where depth was lacking.

Southland have rarely had trouble producing forwards with grunt or inside backs with grit and skill, but outside backs have not been so easy to drag out of the region's mud.

So the likes of Waikato-raised Kendrick Lynn, Te Kuiti-born Pehi Te Whare and Aucklander Tony Koonwaiyou were tempted south, with Glen Horton, Matt Saunders and, this year, Canterbury's James Paterson.

Clark said that when they looked to bring in players, they were only interested in those who wanted to shift south and become part of the community.

This has helped them mesh with influential local products such as the Cowan brothers, Jimmy and Scott, Jamie Mackintosh and Jason Rutledge, the type of players who'd view fly-by-nighters in the same way a Winton sheep farmer views flystrike.

Southland's players are well rewarded. It surprises many to learn that a team that represents a province with just 5000 registered players is near the top of the pops when it comes to their wage bill.

And it has to be that way, said Clark. "In 1998, I know what we were paying our players because it was the first time I was involved in the budgets and it was nothing.

"The last three years, it is no coincidence that the top four teams have been the top four paying teams. We know that to keep a guy like Jimmy Cowan, you have to pay market value.

"It hasn't been easy, that's for sure, but we've always lived within our means. We've never asked for any help from outside the province.

"We have great local support but we're by no means a wealthy union," he said.

Which is the perfect time to provide the compare-and-contrast model to this match.

North Harbour are huge underdogs for the simple reason that their 22 players, selected from a much larger playing pool than Southland's, are not as talented or as experienced as their opposition.

They have not recruited. North Harbour Rugby chief executive Brett Hollister said earlier this season that their budget is focused towards grassroots rather than the high-performance end.

It is a curious approach. Aside from Luke McAlister, their two biggest stars will be sitting in the coaches' box, though you have to question how long Craig Dowd and Invercargill native Wilson will stick around if they are not delivered a budget that can help them bolster such a meagre squad.

Clark is eager to point out that it is not just about budgets and wage bills.

"The key is still to have good people. The other thing for us is we have achieved continuity," he said.

Which is all well and good for the long-term, but at present in Southland there is only one type of continuity they're interested in - and that is for the Ranfurly Shield to stay put for at least another fortnight.