Shield nailed right on whistle

By TERRY MADDAFORD

For years the Ranfurly Shield was it. No Super 12, no NPC. Just the Shield. The Log.

Amid some truly memorable games, none was greater than No 262 on September 28, 1960, a midweek battle between New Zealand rugby's greatest adversaries, Auckland and Canterbury.

As a schoolboy, I joined the 30,000 who packed Eden Park for a match that was to be written into the annals of shield history.

The usual shield fervour gripped the crowd as the advantage swung back and forth before Auckland took their 11-6 halftime lead.

The red and blacks then stormed back and when referee Pat Murphy pinged Waka Nathan at a scrum in front of the Auckland posts with a couple of minutes to play, Buddy Henderson banged over his fifth penalty goal (he had also scored Canterbury's only try) to give the challengers an 18-14 lead.

Surely, the Canterbury fans believed, the shield was on its way south.

But no.

In a stirring finish to a game played less than a month after Auckland had dramatically snatched The Log o' Wood from Northland with a late John Sibun try and a 6-3 victory, the Fred Allen-coached and inspired Aucklanders produced perhaps the greatest Houdini act in shield history.

With the ageing scoreboard clock showing one minute to play, Murphy set a scrum inside the Canterbury 25 (as it was then) with the challengers to feed.

An impossible situation, surely, for the holders.

But the shield was on the line. Somehow veteran Auckland prop Snow White and hooker Colin Currie outmanoeuvred wily Canterbury hooker Dennis Young to win a tighthead. Halfback Des Connor fed mercurial first five-eighths Mac Herewini, who chipped his kick towards the corner and flying winger Warren Moran.

The ball eluded him and Canterbury fullback Fergie McCormick, who only had to kick the leather into touch to ensure victory.

Instead it sat up neatly for the rampant Waka Nathan, who gathered and looked set to stumble the remaining yard or so to touch down wide out.

But the ever-astute Wilson Whineray implored the raging 20-year-old to head for the posts, which he did.

Super-cool fullback Mike Cormack duly added the extra points.

The shield went back to the cabinet; the shell-shocked Canterbury fans shuffled towards the exits.

It was, no doubt, the greatest chapter in Ranfurly Shield history.

Many will point to a game 177 shield matches and 25 years later, in which Auckland beat Canterbury 28-23 at Lancaster Park, as the greatest of them all.

But those who were at Eden Park in 1960 will not have a bar of that.