Taranaki Maori claimed the Tuera Shield from Whanganui Maori on Saturday at Cooks Gardens. Photo / Jared Smith
It is trophy time for Steelfom Wanganui with the 2020 Butcher Boys contesting two significant trophies over the coming two Saturdays.
This weekend the team is off to Taumarunui to defend the Pinetree Log against the King Country Rams and the following Saturday Wanganui challenges Wairarapa-Bush for the Bruce Steel Memorial Cup at Cooks Gardens.
With no Mitre 10 Heartland championship this season the two challenge trophies are Wanganui's main targets during the short four-match first-class programme.
Judging by last year's Heartland rankings and on results over recent seasons Wanganui (No 2 in 2019) will clearly start favourites against both King Country (No 10) and Wairarapa-Bush (No 4).
Those rankings indicate that Wairarapa poses the main threat but the Butcher Boys will be playing that fixture locally in what is the only home game during the Covid-19 reduced season.
Wanganui tuned up for this weekend's Pinetree Log defence with a sound 36-7 win over Horowhenua Kapiti at a wind-blown Shannon Domain last Saturday.
Although the 29-point result was the team's largest away winning margin in matches against H-K since it switched from just Horowhenua in 1997 the score did not reflect the closeness of the two sides for at least half the 80-minute battle.
Wanganui eventually finished with five tries to one but it was 3-0 for most of the first spell, 10-0 at half-time after playing with the wind, then 10-7 before the Butcher Boys thankfully switched up to top gear and took complete control.
It was a far cry from a week earlier when well beaten 36-12 by semi-professionals Hawke's Bay Saracens in a non-first-class-trial game in Napier.
So far this year King Country has lost 61-5 to the Saracens, 39-13 to BOP Academy and 22-18 away to Wairarapa-Bush but last weekend beat East Coast 34-22 in Opotiki.
The current Rams squad includes 2019 skipper Carl Carmichael, a 30-plus-cap front rower who will be playing on his home ground as will be fellow prop Dan Ross who scored against Wanganui last year.
It is a special day for 39-year-old Carmichael , a former prominent Taranaki rep who will be playing his 100th first-class fixture.
Also back again is Taupo hooker Nick Barnes. Backs returning include 22-cap Piopio centre Stephan Turner and Taupo utility Ratu Vosaki.
Footnote – Wairarapa-Bush beat Poverty Bay 34-22 in Napier on Saturday.
Remember "Tank" Gordon
Quite a few players have repped for both Wanganui and King Country and one of the most colourful was Anthony Ralph ("Tank') Gordon who went on to play and coach rugby league for New Zealand.
He made his rugby debut for Wanganui at second five in 1969 against Manawatu in a Bruce Steel Memorial Cup game at Spriggens Park while stationed as a PT instructor at Waiouru Military Camp.
The authors of the NZ Rugby Almanack wrote – "Best of the Wanganui players (during the season) was certainly the 20-year-old soldier Gordon. Quick to the ball, difficult to bring down and seemingly with a lot of football in him, Gordon was played at second five, centre and on the wing – he deserves more than a second look."
The Almanack was spot-on because after playing nine games for the Butcher Boys in 1969-70 Gordon repped for King Country, switched to league in 1978 and had 13 tests for the Kiwis after playing only 13 club games of league.
He was in the 1975 and 1978 World Cup tournaments and later switched to coaching in 1987, his Kiwis causing a world-wide shock by upsetting the Kangaroos. But there was no repeat 12 months later when Australia gained revenge before 47,000 fans at Eden Park.
Gordon lost his Kiwis coaching role after a 1989 tour of Britain and France but returned to England to coach London Crusaders and Hull in 1993-95.
He died in Rotorua in 2012 at the age of 63 after a lengthy illness.
Close neighbours
After switching from Wanganui to King Country in 1920 and returning 50 years later in 1970, the Ruapehu clubs naturally have a very close affinity with both unions.
There have been numerous players who have represented both unions, especially since the Ruapehu clubs rejoined the ranks of the Northern Wanganui sub-union after 50 years away.
Ruapehu players who represented Wanganui in the first few years since the clubs returned to the local union, with their club, position and the years and number of games they wore the blue, black and white colours –
Luke Albert (Ohakune, mid field, 1972-79, 19); Len Clode (Raetihi, front row, 1971-72, 15); Thomas Henare (Raetihi, utility back, 1971, 1); Rangi Paki (Ohakune, three quarter, 1970-74, 52), Maurice Rush (Ohakune, loose forward, 1970-73, 55). Tom Spry (Karioi, hooker-prop, 1971-73 34), Inky Wilson (Ohakune, loose forward, 1971-73 29); Ken Yeoman (Raetihi, fullback, 1971, 1).
Other Wanganui players who represented both King Country and Wanganui in the past half century include "Tank" Gordon (Waiouru, utility back, 1969-70, 9); Hamish Kydd (Tech COB, loose forward, 1998-2002, 31); Ray Southam (Wanganui HSOB, three quarter, 1971-73, 9) and Peter Thomas (Utiku OB, half back, 1989-98, 54).
In addition "Rocky" Parr, a Raetihi NZ Maori All Black and King Country front rower, who played for Wanganui-King, including beating the 1966 British Isles 12-6 on Spriggens Park, was a Wanganui selector-coach.
The two unions have played 67 times since 1933 with Wanganui ahead 35 wins to 29 with three draws, scoring 1297 points and conceding 1062 (average score 19-16).
In Heartland rugby since the start in 2006 Wanganui has won 10 times, lost twice and drawn twice, scoring 584 points to 234 for an average score of 37-17.
It will be the 13th time that the Butcher Boys have played in Taumarunui and there have been only three wins – 13-4 in 1977, 15-6 in 1979 and 23-17 in 1998 on the last outing at the ground.
Longest winning streaks have been 13 by Wanganui (1972-84) with nine of them in North Island Div 2 fixtures, and a dozen by King Country (1954-69) during the Colin and Stan Meads era.
The unions have twice met in play-offs, both in Te Kuiti, with Wanganui winning the 2003 NPC Div 3 final 28-16 and a 2014 Lochore Cup semi-final 37-6, going on to beat North Otago 14-12 in the Oamaru final.
Wanganui has won six Meads Cup titles, one Lochore Cup and three NPC Div 3 championships and King Country the Lochore Cup in 2015, and the NPC Div 2 title in 1992 (playing the next five seasons in Div 1).
The two unions have met each other four times in Raetihi, then affiliated to King Country, with KC winning 24-11 in 1938 (G H Hook Wanganui & OB, W J Firmin Kaierau and G Berryman Wanganui Pirates scoring tries for Wanganui and K Welsh Tech COB kicking a conversion) a 6-all draw in 1945 (E M Bligh and M J Hunter, both Wanganui & OB tries), Wanganui 7-6 in 1947 (I A Whale Kaierau try and drop goal) and KC 20-8 in 1969 (B C McKinnon Tech COB and B R Ahern Marist tries, R B Barrell Marton OB con).
Apart from finishing fourth in the Meads Cup in 2017, winning the Lochore Cup in 2014 and runners-up in 2015 King Country has often struggled in Heartland rugby, finishing 11th in 2011-12 and 10th in 2017 and last season when the maroon and golds won only two games but did well to beat Buller 34-12 and hold South Canterbury to 21-19, both at Taupo.
After losing by a record 80-3 in the inaugural fixture at Cooks Gardens in 2017, 36-19 at Te Kuiti in 2018 and 57-19 here last season King Country is seeking to win the Sir Colin Meads Pinetree Log for the first time on Saturday.
The unique trophy was donated by John Palamountain and family, long time friends of Colin Meads.