Rugby: Shield not the main focus

Will Southland's Ranfurly Shield tenure come to an end on Thursday night? Photo / Getty Images

Rugby's prized Ranfurly Shield might be up for grabs but both holders Southland and challengers Auckland have avoided making it a major element of their build-up to their clash in Invercargill tomorrow night.

The match is also a showdown between the top two teams in the national provincial championship and Southland co-coach Dave Henderson says that's where the Stags' attention is trained.

"ITM Cup standings and so forth is what we focus on," he said.

"The Shield is there, but we never talk about it and we haven't right from the first challenge at the beginning of the season. It's at the back of the boys' mind and they will die for it on Thursday night, but it's not the focus of our preparations."

Instead, the Southlanders were looking at combating Auckland's physical presence up front in a contest that could be dominated by exchanges among the forwards given the expected conditions after the wintry weather in the province.

"To be honest, that's what we've been talking about all week - we have to match their physicality," Henderson said.

"We don't think we've done that over the past couple of years and we need to on Thursday night."

He and co-coach Simon Culhane also wanted the Stags to be more clinical with their use of the ball so they cut down on the amount of defending they did when they pipped Waikato 7-6 in a battle of attrition in Hamilton last week.

"From our perspective, we have to get our attack going," he said.

"Our accuracy and execution let us down at times and we ended up on defence through that, and through some good play from Waikato too."

The Shield challenge will be Southland's sixth of their present tenure, with Auckland providing their most difficult opposition on paper so far.

The match will also take place 51 years to the day that Auckland won 13-9 in Invercargill to end Southland's previous hold on the Log o' Wood.

Henderson was aware of the coincidence, but regarded it as an irrelevance.

"It's one of those things that's history," he said.

"We play in the present, really, and most of our preparations is on what we need to improve from last week."

Southland have made one change to their starting 15 to cater for the absence of centre Kendrick Lynn, who is out with a season-ending groin injury.

Utility back Mark Wells is elevated from the bench to the wing, replacing Tony Koonwaiyou, who moves to centre.

Auckland coach Mark Anscombe has made six personnel changes to his run-on side, including adding two returning All Blacks in prop John Afoa and second five-eighth Benson Stanley.

The most successful province in Ranfurly Shield history, Auckland last held the trophy three years ago.

But as was the case with Southland, Anscombe said the prime focus for his squad was the NPC.

The Shield hadn't been spoken about until former All Black and Auckland stalwart Grant Fox talked to the players yesterday about challenging for it.

"If we beat Southland down there, we can go top of the table," Anscombe said.

"That's the way we're looking at the game."

- NZPA