Jared Smith
In writing my column late last week about how the National Provincial Championship could use an injection of All Black talent, as a virtue of necessity in this Covid-19 world, my thoughts drifted the local game as well.
As I head into an uncertain future in my sports journalism career, I will always be proud that I got to be your media voice through one of the great eras of Wanganui Heartland rugby – when the 2014 Lochore Cup was followed by the first ever Meads Cup three-peat, 2015-17.
I have a lot of favourite games through that magic timeframe.
There was the 37-6 hammering of a shocked King Country in the 2014 Lochore semifinal at Te Kuiti, which signaled Wanganui's reemergence as an NPC powerhouse after scratching about for nearly two seasons.
Another was the announcement of Stephen Perofeta as a star of the future with his scintillating hat trick in the 55-23 win over Poverty Bay in 2015 on Cooks Gardens.
A week later came the extraordinary match in Masterton, as Wanganui blitzed out to a 47-0 lead by halftime against Wairarapa-Bush, only to watch the home side completely transform in the second stanza – scoring 35 consecutive points for 47-35, until the visitors' regained control in the last ten minutes for a nerve-jangling 57-35 win.
Of course, there was both the 2016 and 2017 Meads Cup finals – the former played in front of a big Cooks Gardens crowd as 'the Heartland Invincibles' came from behind to beat Buller 20-18 in skipper Peter Rowe's last hurrah for NPC rugby, while the latter saw Cameron Crowley give his greatest performance in the Wanganui jumper for both the travelling supporters and another retiring skipper in Cole Baldwin as part of the 30-14 dismissal of Horowhenua-Kapiti in Levin.
But perhaps my favourite match had been the week before at Timaru's Alpine Stadium, where Wanganui defied all odds imaginable to upset a devastated South Canterbury 29-24, in a 2017 semifinal which on paper and in execution from the officials, they had absolutely no right to win.
Wanganui had barely scraped into fourth place on a 5-3 record, thanks to a higher points differential than table neighbours Mid Canterbury and West Coast, after a final round robin where they had to wait until late on Saturday evening to find out if other results had gone their way.
Meanwhile, the home side was on a seven match winning streak, including 21-17 over Wanganui in round robin play a few weeks before, and had an embarrassment of riches as they brought back three previously injured stars to a squad already running hot, just to face a far-travelling Wanganui squad literally held together by strapping tape.
Leading points scorer Craig Clare and top try scorer Jim Seruwalu were still out with concussion and a broken hand respectively, handing oversized responsibilities to the likes of teenagers Ethan Robinson and Cody Hemi, that latter still at Whanganui Collegiate.
It wasn't any better in the forwards.
With prop Viki Tofa at his brother's wedding, his replacement Hamish Mellow chose to gut out a painful back injury – I sat with him on the bus ride to the ground and the young man had to perch on an angle at the edge of his seat to keep his spine perfectly straight.
Mellow had made a vow – he would take the agony of the weight of South Canterbury's NZ Heartland XV front rowers leaning on him for 40 minutes worth of rucks and scrums, before handing over to another youngster in Gabriel Hakaraia.
Hopes that veteran locks Fraser Hammond and Sekonaia Kalou could make injury comebacks of their own were dashed during the week, but that would ultimately set the table for the fiery Sam Madams to play the match of his life.
The game was a surreal affair – South Canterbury convinced they could run the ball from anywhere and play a constant up-tempo style with quick lineouts and tap kicks on penalties, with the all-go game plan having one shining moment when halfback Willie Wright scored a brilliant team try that started 5m out from their own line.
It seemed two other casualties of the fast pace were the North Otago-based assistant referees – twice in the second half they were late getting to the tryline corner as first Wanganui fullback Nick Harding and then No 8 Bryn Hudson crashed over to score with defenders on them.
The decisions were no clear sight, therefore no tries.
Yet apparently said touchies had the x-ray vision from a distance to tell referee Nick Webster, who when making his own calls was superb, that South Canterbury reserve back Kevin Moore had beaten Wanganui halfback Lindsay Horrocks to the in-goal ball after Wright spliced a penalty attempt.
There was also the try by hometown hooker Marac Beckham where there seemed no problem with a suspect forward pass earlier in the movement, this in clear view from the sideline.
These moments would prompt one of Wanganui's assistant coaches in Ross Williams to approach Webster after the match to state that while he thought the referee had done a fine job, his AR's had badly let him down.
There seemed no way Wanganui could win, except for sheer bloody mindedness - they just flat out would not have it.
Robinson shined – gambling on a similar intercept attempt to which team mate Dane Whale had been penalised for, not two minutes beforehand, to run 75m and put winger Simon Dibben over to score.
The other winger Crowley, smashed around the shoulder and neck, climbed up off the deck to slide through a half gap and put Hudson over right on halftime in the perfect answer to Wright's try.
Harding, denied his try, would slot five precious penalties, the last one coming after a heart-seizing miss in front, as the panicking home town forwards infringed repeatedly in the face of relentless physicality from Baldwin, Madams, Hudson and then Baldwin's replacement Roman Tutauha.
Out wide the 'kids' – Robinson and Hemi – had to mark bigger and faster men for the final quarter, and put them down every time.
The stain which that loss left on the South Canterbury psyche became plain to see in the following weeks when their coach Barry Matthews, who had already ruffled feathers the year before when he took the NZ Heartland captaincy off Rowe in favour of his own skipper Kieran Coll, again exercised personal oversight in the national team to see Madams booted from the squad after just one phone call, on the eve of travelling to camp for the game against NZ Marist.
Unexpected defeat would prove a painful enduring legacy for the Timaru union over that 2015-18 period.
They would finish in the top end of the point tables, but then choked in either a home semifinal or final on each occasion to sides they had previously beaten - the last straw for Matthews tenure being 2018 when a similarly under strength Thames Valley came from 12-3 down at halftime to win the Meads Cup 17-12.
But for Wanganui, there was never the agony of 'what if', instead just one of their finest displays of courage and self belief, adding to the rich tapestry of their undeniable record as Heartland's greatest union, which will hopefully have more wonderful chapters from 2021 onwards.
The event in Whangārei featured 700 athletes from 132 schools.