South Canterbury Ranfurly Shield challenge’s staggering cost revealed as union pulls out of fixture

South Canterbury players celebrate winning the Meads Cup with a haka. Photo / Photosport

It is the pinnacle of domestic rugby in New Zealand, the title that trumps all others on a player’s CV.

Yet, citing costs, Heartland amateur rugby champions South Canterbury have turned down the opportunity to challenge for the Ranfurly Shield against NPC side Hawke’s Bay.

The Hawke’s Bay Rugby Union announced on Tuesday the challenge would instead be picked up by Heartland runners-up Whanganui and will be the second Shield defence of the year – if the Magpies successfully defend the trophy against another Heartland side, King Country, in Hastings on June 26.

In an interview with Newstalk ZB, South Canterbury Rugby Football Union chief executive Tim Hyde-Smith revealed the staggering cost his union would have had to cop in order to send the team north.

“About $50,000 to get from the South Island up to the Hawke’s Bay,” Hyde-Smith said.

He added that the majority of that cost was in airfares, which made up approximately $28,000 of the $50,000 total.

Hyde-Smith, former director of operations at the Auckland Marist Rugby Club, said South Canterbury’s fundraising efforts were “a long way off” financing the trip.

“We raised 30 per cent. But yeah, we were a long way off. We reached out to our coaches and management group about four weeks ago and advised them that we were struggling a little bit. We applied for grants, sponsorship money but it just wasn’t forthcoming this year.”

The challenge would have been the third successive year for South Canterbury as Heartland champions.

Hyde-Smith said the cost of airfares for the Shield challenge in 2022, also in Hawke’s Bay, was $13,000 and their challenge in Wellington in 2023 cost “just under $45,000 [total]”.

A $15,000 increase in airfares over a two-year period meant that the trip was just “a bridge too far”.

“It would have been fantastic for a Heartland union to take it off an NPC union and bring it back down into our campaigns and divisions, but... we’ve been very privileged the last two years because we’ve won the Meads Cup, our boys have been fantastic and they’ve done really well. But this year it was a bridge too far.”