Shield defence ends haunting memories for BoP prop

1.00pm

It takes a lot to trigger the emotions of Bay of Plenty rugby hard man Peter Kennedy.

However the former prop cried tears of joy as Bay of Plenty defended the Ranfurly Shield for the first time ever, beating bitter rivals Waikato 26-20 at Mount Maunganui on Sunday.

The Shield defence came just a week after the team, more than 93 years after the Bay of Plenty union was formed and after 18 heart-wrenching challenges, won the Log o' Wood from Auckland.

Fifteen minutes after referee Steve Walsh blew full-time on Sunday, Kennedy slipped quietly into the changing shed.

With little fanfare Kennedy wrapped his huge hands around the Ranfurly Shield and cried.

"What I'm feeling now is indescribable and irreplaceable," Kennedy said once he regained composure.

"This is the log of wood that everyone wants and for me to touch it for the first time is enormous.

"It was the end of a chapter for me -- this team has done us so proud. I've waited 20 years for this moment and it's just so gratifying."

The years do not dull Kennedy's memory of the '84 Ranfurly Shield challenge against Canterbury at Lancaster Park which they lost 13-18.

Kennedy, 51, might have played 101 games for his province over 10 seasons but his name was irrevocably linked with that try.

In the closing minutes Canterbury led by five points with Bay of Plenty hammering their tryline.

Kennedy made one final desperate final lunge for what he was sure was the match-winner, although Bay would have needed Ron Preston's close-range conversion to clinch it. The Referee's whistle went and Kennedy lay on the tryline, elated, he thought, at having scored.

That was until he realised the crowd was pouring on to the field, with the refs whistle signalling game over.

"I bloody well know I stretched out and got the ball down on the tryline but (Bruce) Deans (and lock Albert Anderson) dived in and pushed the ball back. With the crowd virtually on the sideline, by the time the ref got around he didn't want to see it," he said.

So painful are the memories from that fateful day that Kennedy has only once in the last 20 years been able to watch Bay of Plenty challenge for the Ranfurly Shield -- and that was the ill-fated 1996 challenge when they lost 30-29 to Auckland.

"It's always been too much for me and I've felt like I was a bad omen on the team or something. Every time we had a challenge I'd leave the house or find something else to do.

Kennedy did not linger long in the Steamers changing room on Sunday, sneaking out as quickly and as unobtrusively as he'd arrived, although several players stopped to acknowledge his presence and his contribution to Bay rugby.

As he walked back up the players' tunnel and out on to the grandstand, Kennedy's mile-wide smile and still moist eyes said it all.

"That's bloody brilliant -- a lot of memories were left behind for me today and it's over now, history. If I die today I'll die a happy man."

- BAY OF PLENTY TIMES

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