A new Heartland record

Wanganui's Tom Stewart clearing the ball during Wanganui vs Wairarapa-Bush game at Cooks Gardens on Saturday. PICTURE / BEVAN CONLEY

Wanganui's runaway 79-7 thrashing of Wairarapa-Bush last weekend was a new Heartland record for the Butcher Boys.
It was the highest score the Steelform-sponsored side has registered in 110 Heartland championship games since the competition started in 2006, the highest score recorded at Cooks Gardens and a record win in 91 fixtures against Wairarapa or Bush teams in 127 years.
The previous top scores by Wanganui in the Mitre 10 Heartland series were 74-6 v West Coast on the same ground and 74-8 v East Coast in Ruatoria, both by last season's unbeaten Meads Cup champion team.
Highest previous score in Wanganui v Wairarapa-Bush fixture, since the merger of the two visiting unions in 1971, was 58-26 in the Meads Cup semi-final at Cooks Gardens last year.
Wanganui has scored 60 or more points in first-class games 18 times with last weekend's score the third highest, behind 81-9 v West Coast in 1993 and 81-12 v Buller the following year, both at Spriggens Park during the old NPC Div 3 championship competitions.
The heaviest losses by Wanganui have been 88-3 v Taranaki at Hawera in 2000, 86-3 v Waikato in a Ranfurly Shield challenge v Waikato in Tokoroa the same season, and 84-0 by Taranaki in 1995 and 80-11 v Wellington in 1991, both at Spriggens Park.
Unbeaten

Wanganui is off to Paeroa on Saturday in a bid to retain an unbeaten Heartland record in seven championship matches against Thames Valley.
The two unions have met 33 times since 1923 with Wanganui ahead 27 wins to six including 65-18 in the first Heartland fixture at Cooks Gardens in 2006 and 60-14 here last season. Closest games were 23-17 at home in 2010 and 31-21 at Paeroa in 2011.
The Swamp Foxes, whose highest placing was sixth in 2010, opened the 2017 campaign with a six tries to one 42-13 romp over East Coast in Ruatoria last Saturday.
The Valley's six wins over Wanganui were 10-6 in 1923, 20-16 in 1998 and 30-8 in 2001, all at Te Aroha, 38-11 in Paeroa in 1991 and twice on Spriggens Park - 15-11 in 1926 and 31-12 in 1988 (a victory that clinched the first of three NPC Div 3 championships).
Thames Valley finished 11th in the Heartland competition last year with a 22-all draw with King Country at Te Aroha the sole saving grace during a winless season.
Hooker Hayden Wisnewski, who scored a try against East Coast last weekend, was a 2016 NZ Heartland rep.

Team links
Wanganui has links with two provincial teams who loom as contenders in the Mitre 10 Cup championship this season.
Included in defending champions and 11-times winners Canterbury's squad are Wanganui 2015 Meads Cup champion three-quarter Poasa Waqanibau, Taihape-born and educated halfback Jack Stratton (son of ex-Wanganui rep forward Peter Stratton and grandson of local ex-All Black fullback trialist Bob Barrell) and middle row forward Jonno Osborne (son of ex-Wanganui rep Charles Osborne).
Taranaki, the 2014 national champions and semi-finalists last year, has former Wanganui Collegiate School 1st XV, 2015 Meads Cup winner, NZ Colts rep and Auckland Blues Super Rugby first five Stephen Perofeta and All Black and former Wanganui rep winger Waisake Naholo in its squad this season.
Both Perofeta and Naholo have scored tries for Taranaki in early games as has Stratton for Canterbury.

Close association
Wanganui and Wairarapa-Bush have had a long association since 1890 with a number of players repping for both unions.
They included WRFU life member Danny Anderson, a halfback who played eight times for the Butcher Boys between 1961 and 1965 and five times for Wairarapa in 1957.
He went on as a reserve in his debut for Wanganui in a 19-6 loss to Bush at Pahiatua in 1961 and played in a 6-all draw with Wairarapa at Spriggens Park in 1964.
Wanganui All Black trialist fullback Bob Barrell, who repped 139 times for Wanganui between 1963 and 1977, played three times for Wairarapa-Bush in 1979 including in a 9-0 losing side on Spriggens Park.
Fijian import lock Tomasi Kedrabuka had 15 matches for Wanganui between 2002 and 2004, including as a member of the 2003 NPC Div 3 champion side before playing for Wairarapa-Bush.

Convincing victory
The Toyota Wanganui 2nd XV under new coach Denis Edwards took a giant step towards regaining the RDO Shield with a convincing 50-17 victory over defending champions Wairarapa-Bush on Cooks Gardens last weekend.
Wanganui, the 2014 and 2015 champions, raced in eight tries to three in an impressive display of attacking rugby to add to victory over the Hawke's Bay Saracens Under-19s (64-12) and a 19-all muddy draw with the Marton Samoans .
This weekend Wanganui plays Horowhenua-Kapiti in Levin, then the Wellington Maori Development XV at Spriggens Park on Sept 9 with the RDO final at Levin on Sept 16.

Shield defences
Wanganui has played a few strong Ranfurly Shield sides during its 30 challenges between 1907 and this year but none can compare with the Wairarapa defenders of the 1929 era.
Wairarapa, now merged with Bush since 1971 and who lost to Wanganui by a record 79-7 last weekend at the start of the 2017 Mitre 10 Heartland championship, once fielded one of the strongest teams in the 113 year history of the famous shield.
The Stags first won "The Log" which was donated by the Earl of Ranfurly, Governor General of New Zealand and patron of the NZRFU in 1901, by upsetting Hawke's Bay 15-11 at Napier in 1927.
That ended a 25-match reign by the Magpies over five years including a 36-3 win over Wanganui in Hastings in 1926. The Bay had cleaned up Wairarapa 77-14 before Wanganui's challenge.
But the Stags roared back the next season in the opening 1927 challenge to win the Shield for the first time, brushed aside neighbours Bush 53-3 only to "lose" but retain the trophy 10-21 against Hawke's Bay in Masterton.
A protest by Wairarapa that HB's W P Barclay had not fulfilled the necessary residential qualifications was upheld and the Shield stayed in Masterton but only for a weekend until Manawhenua de-throned the holders 18-16 at Carterton.
Up came Canterbury to take the trophy off Manawhenua 17-6 in Palmerston North in the third defence after the holders had repelled neighbouring Wanganui 25-6 a week earlier.
Wairarapa, boosted by the arrival of a few top players, took the trophy off Canterbury 8-7 early in 1928 and repelled eight challenges before a remarkable game at Carterton in 1929.
Challengers Southland, which had held the trophy for one defence in 1920-21, was written off before the 1929 challenge after losing by a 20 point margin against Canterbury who was beaten 17-12 by Wairarapa just prior to Southland's day of fame in Carterton.
Stacked up against Southland, who staggered New Zealand rugby with a bomb-shell 19-16 victory, was a Wairarapa side that included no less than 11 current or former All Blacks.
The defenders were so confident that skipper Bert Cooke had left the Shield on display in the window of his menswear store in the main street of Masterton.
A reserve was rushed from Carterton to collect the trophy in time for the Shield hand-over.
Southland took the Shield south and repelled three challengers, starting with Wanganui 19-0 in 1930, before losing 12-3 to Wellington.
Last time Wairarapa won the trophy was 3-0 over Canterbury in 1950 only to lose 17-14 to South Canterbury in the first defence with South Canterbury suffering the same fate - a 20-9 loss a week later against North Auckland in Timaru, the first time the northern union had won the Shield.
Wairarapa-Bush as a merged union has challenged nine times for the trophy including being whipped 96-0 by Canterbury in 2006, the year the challengers won the inaugural Meads Cup 16-14 against Wanganui.
The highest Shield score and winning margin was Auckland's 139-5 v North Otago at Oamaru in 1993.
Wanganui's heaviest Shield loss was 86-3 to Waikato at Tokoroa in 2000.