Rugby: Last shield bid for Counties warhorse

By Chris Rattue

It was the year of the Cavaliers' tour to South Africa, the first rugby World Cup was a twinkle in the eye, and open professionalism was still a closed chequebook.

It was 1986, and it was also the year that Jim Coe made his debut as a lock-cum-loose forward for Counties, in a team who included the likes of Rod Ketels, Alan Dawson and Warren McLean.

Thirteen years on, the 35-year-old Coe has clocked up 170 matches for Counties Manukau, and is approaching his seventh and what will probably be his last Ranfurly Shield challenge, against Waikato on Saturday, when the Steelers attempt to lift the trophy for the first time.

As might be expected after so many top-class games, Coe is a bit hazy on some of his Ranfurly Shield history and even the number of challenges he has taken part in, although the first - a 9-48 loss to Auckland in 1987 - sticks out.

"I remember that first one quite well. A local radio station named me as man of the match - the prize was a weekend for two on Pakatoa Island," Coe said. "Andy Haden was a commentator and he told me later he'd described me as playing like a dog chasing seagulls. I could never quite get them.

"Auckland were firing at that point and we got dealt to. But when you play so many games they start melding into each other and I don't have specific memories of the other challenges."

Five of his six previous challenges have been against Auckland, the other against Canterbury. The closest call was a 19-24 defeat at Eden Park in 1992. But three years earlier, Counties were hammered 84-3 at the same ground.

Coe has played a couple of games for the Blues, but one of the great survivors of New Zealand rugby has hardly embraced the open professional era as others have.

There is a bit more in it than a weekend on an island in the gulf, but Coe has shunned the full-time game.

For the past 16 years, he has worked for New Zealand Steel at Glenbrook, where he is now a production engineer who splits his time between an office and the hot strip mill plant.

New Zealand summers and his family - wife Judith, Tara, aged 6 and Aaron, aged 4 - have taken precedence over the chance to play overseas.

"I've been approached to play in Italy and Ireland and more recently to go to Japan and while I wouldn't say I've never been tempted, I've got a family and I enjoy the summers too much," said Coe, whose pursuits include fishing and surf lifesaving.

The shield, he says, remains as important as ever, although the build-up is not as "hyped" as in the past.

"We might have been too keyed up in the past, but this time we're not doing anything different and we haven't even mentioned the shield," Coe said. "But the shield hasn't lost its importance. You only have to ask the teams who hold it. The only thing that has really changed is the way we are approaching the game."

Coe will spare a thought on Saturday for the Counties players of the past who made 18 unsuccessful challenges, and in particular the union's record-holder, Alan Dawson, who notched up 201 games.

Dawson, a fitter and welder, also works at New Zealand Steel, and the pair played many times together for the Waiuku club.

"We're good mates and he really helped me early on in my career," Coe said. "I feel a bit for some of those Counties players from the past, especially the ones who played in a couple of challenges that ended as draws. It's always upset me not being able to lift the shield.

"To be honest, I think this is the best chance we've had since I've been playing. But having said that, we will have to perform 100 per cent better than we did [against Southland] last week."

* George Stowers has replaced Hare Makiri (leg injury) on the blindside flank for Saturday's challenge, with Fa'ala Tolouno joining the reserves. Counties do not expect Super 12 forward Api Naevo to return to the squad this year because of his Fijian commitments.