Ranfurly Shield break: Hawke’s Bay Rugby’s cabinet will be empty for the summer

Blair Furlong, a hero of the 1966-1969 era and Hawke's Bay Rugby president when the shield was won again in 2013, pictured at McLean Park in the intervening years, in the now bygone McKenzie Stand. Photo / NZME

The New Zealand Rugby union has started a Ranfurly Shield ruckus inquiry amid revelations the shield won’t be locked away in the Hawke’s Bay Rugby Union cabinet for the summer.

Hawke’s Bay Rugby chief executive Jay Campbell confirmed the trophy, broken in two after an incident at a player’s flat on Sunday morning, had been taken by a staff member back to Wellington on Monday.

With the issues now in the hands of an NZR-appointed independent investigator, the shield pieces are now being prepared for repairs but won’t be back in the Bay for the celebrations of the type which followed the three other successful challenges in the last decade and the win that started the three years of mainly sun-drenched shield fever in 1966-1969.

“It’s bloody disappointing,” he said, reiterating that in keeping with the traditions of the shield the union would have wanted to show the shield to the community at every opportunity.

He said he “understands the reasons” but it was something the players have to accept “as a consequence of their actions”.

The union is confident the damage happened as it had described on Sunday, and around the time of 7.30-8.30am at a player’s flat, and it was in the union’s hands soon afterwards.

At present, the union regards as “speculation” conjecture over “white powder” pictured on one half of the broken shield, but as much as the public wants answers it also wants to know exactly what’s happened, a result it hopes will be provided by the investigation.

Hawke’s Bay Today understands there were people other than team members among those at the house.

The team is due to play an NPC quarter-final against Bay of Plenty in Tauranga on Sunday.

“The (NZR) investigation has already started, but the team has trained today (Tuesday) and has to now be 100 per cent focussed on this game,” he said.

“We want answers as much as everyone else,” he said, reiterating players and staff are “devastated” by what has happened. “People might think we’re trying to brush it under the carpet - far from it.”

New Zealand Rugby sent a statement on Tuesday confirming it would appoint an independent investigator “as part of this and they will look to establish the facts relating to the substance.

“As part of the investigation, we also expect that the facts around how the Shield was cared for to be established.”

Meanwhile, one hero of the 1966-1969 era doubts it ever came close to being in a situation where the trophy as it was then could have been broken in half or otherwise damaged.

Blair Furlong, who played for Bay of Plenty Māori in the curtain raiser the day the Magpies beat Waikato to claim the shield in Hamilton but is most-famed for his shield-saving dropped goal for Hawke’s Bay against Wellington in Napier a year later, says the players almost never saw the shield over the three years of the great reign.

Furlong, who was Hawke’s Bay union president when the Magpies next won a challenge in 2013, said that in the 1960s it was brought out onto the sideline each week, and then put away.

“It’s the only time we saw it,” he said. “After that I wouldn’t know where it went. We would go back to the Criterion Hotel, but I don’t recall it ever being in the room we had there.”

Sometimes, suggests Furlong, it must have spent time with that secretary, the now late Bob Harris, but he doesn’t recall it being paraded around the province also though it was around for parades which took place before almost every Saturday defence of the era.

Furlong said that even when the shield was won by the Magpies in the 2013-2020 period, he recalled one time when it was brought back, taken to a bar, and put in the safekeeping of the proprietor.

The relaxed stance to its safekeeping, now being reviewed by NZR, was also once recalled by an ex-pupil of Napier Boys’ High School, recalling how 1960s Magpies captain Kel Tremain asked him to take the Shield to the Union office one morning.

The boy clung to it on the handlebars of his bike, reaching the destination horrified to discover it had been scratched and dented on the short ride.

Decades later when the ex-pupil saw the trophy again friends were bemused as to why his attention was focused on the back of the trophy, where the scars and indentations were as obvious as they day they happened.

Furlong said he’s “totally disappointed” over what’s happened and also wants answers.

Doug Laing is a senior reporter based in Napier with Hawke’s Bay Today, and has 50 years of journalism experience in news gathering, including breaking news, sports, local events, issues, and personalities.