Wellington, Hawke's Bay and the Ranfurly Shield in the 1920s

Above: Hawke's Bay's 58-8 Ranfurly Sheld win over Wellington illustrated in a cartoon in the Dominion on 16 August 1926.

The following article was first published here two years ago - one of our favurite Ranfurly Shield stories from a previus era.

The 1920s and the 1960s. They were the two great eras for Hawke's Bay rugby, and throughout both decades they staved off numerous Ranfurly Shield challenges, including several from Wellington.

With a host of star players, many of whom are still revered and talked about, Hawke's Bay defended the Ranfurly Shield on 24 occasions in a golden run spanning five years between 1922 and 1927.

In this period, Hawke's Bay started the first significant Ranfurly Shield reign, widely regarded as second only to Auckland's hold on the shield in the 1980s and early 1990s.

Up to that point, Wellington and Auckland were the two most successful Ranfurly Shield provinces, Wellington having been the first side to win it as a challenger when they beat inaugural holders Auckland 6-3 in 1905 and then winning and losing it several times up until the early 1920s.

Wellington was in possession of the shield in 1922, having regained it off Southland the previous year after previously defending it 15 times in three seasons. Wellington started a trend of putting it up for grabs in away matches, and the Southlanders had won 17-6 in Invercargill in September 1920. Obliged to bring it up to Wellington on their return fixture almost a year later in 1921, Wellington promptly regained it by scoring five tries and winning 28-13. ?

Wellington defended the shield against Auckland and Otago in two challenges in 1921 and safely stored it away in the cabinet for the summer and much of the next season until 9 August 1922 when they accepted an innocuous mid-week challenge from Hawke's Bay.

At the time, the All Blacks were in Australia, leaving Hawke's Bay without their most famous player of the time, Maurice Brownlie. Wellington was without All Blacks Mark and Ginger Nicholls, Umberto Calcinai and Syd Shearer, and further under-strength with some other players waylaid by work commitments.

Still, Hawke's Bay weren't expected to pose too serious a threat, the Dominion in its preview commenting: "The visitors have a powerful set of forwards and the backs showed a fine combination [in their previous match] against Wairarapa. Although there are several unavailable for Wellington, an excellent side has been got together."??

Four thousand spectators turned up on a nice day at Athletic Park to see the Hawke's Bay forwards, "led by the burly [Cyril] Brownlie, brother of the All Black," take it to Wellington and take a commanding 11-3 lead into halftime. Wellington edged closer early in the second half with a try to Udy, but a try to Hawke's Bay wing Jackie Blake gave them a 19-6 win and the Ranfurly Shield for the first time.

Thus started a memorable Ranfurly Shield reign, in which Hawke's Bay swatted away challenges from the biggest and best unions of the country including three more challenges from Wellington.

Wellington's first swipe at regaining the shield was the following year, 1923 - ?a rebuilding year for the province - and they were defeated 6-10.

Next it was in early September 1925 when Hawke's Bay and their travelling supporters numbering 3,000 boldly put the shield up for grabs away from home at Athletic Park.

By this stage, Hawke's Bay had assembled a formidable team, including current and future All Blacks Maurice and Cyril Brownlie, George Nepia, Bert Grenside, Jimmy Mill, Jack Blake, Tom Corkill, Lui Paewai, Sam Gemmell, Jack Ormond, Bull Irvine and their captain Alex Fitzpatrick.

Wellington's best player of the time was first five-eighth Mark Nicholls, who had taken 19-year old fullback sensation George Nepia under his wing on the previous year's ‘Invincibles' All Blacks' 1924/25 tour.

On a muddy surface, a tough battle developed and it was 6-6 at halftime. Once again though, the powerful Hawke's Bay pack wrestled control and pulled their side out of danger to beat Wellington 20-11.

The Hawke's Bay team in 1926 was at the peak of its powers, and had even more star power in the form of first and second five-eighths Lance Johnson and Bert Cooke.?

From Southland, Johnson had spent time in Wellington but couldn't command a regular spot in the side behind Nicholls, so he moved to the Bay.

If Nepia was the best fullback in the world at the time, Cooke was the number one midfielder. Only a lightweight, Cooke was a 1920s version of Christian Cullen. ?From Auckland, Cooke subsequently played representative rugby for Wairarapa and Wellington (out of the Hutt club) and later played rugby league for New Zealand as well.

Needless to say, Hawke's Bay swept all before them in 1926 including meeting Wellington for a match that proved to be one of the most famous Ranfurly Shield wins, before or since. This included beating Auckland 41-11 and demolishing a strong Wairarapa side 77-14, with Blake (5 tries), Maurice Brownlie (3), Cooke (3) and Corkill scoring some of the 17 tries.

Anticipation was at fever pitch in both Napier and Wellington for the latter's challenge on 14 August 1926. Locals queued in their thousands to secure tickets and as many as 1,500 Wellington supporters descended on Napier in two special trains that were put on and some others by motor car.

‘Five-eighths', in the Dominion before the match wrote: "all roads lead to Napier on Saturday next, when Wellington will make another bid to wrest the Ranfurly Shield from Hawke's Bay, who raided the Empire City in 1922, and bore away the blue riband of New Zealand Rugby by decisively defeating the holders. Since that date, the wearers of the black and white jerseys have defied all efforts to take the shield from them, and the coveted trophy is still reposing securely under the shadow of Bluff Hill."

‘Five-eighths' added that "the Wellington representatives have been training assiduously for this crucial test and will the take the field as fit as fiddles."

At full strength for this match, Wellington could call upon an All Black inside backs combination of halfback Ginger Nicholls and five-eighths Mark Nicholls and Snowy Svenson and current New Zealand captain and wing forward Cliff Porter and future All Black Ned Barry in the forwards.

However the signs that perhaps all was not right a few days before the challenge when they lost in perfect conditions in Carterton to Wairarapa 24-17 after leading 14-5.

What transpired In Napier on the Saturday was a 58-8 loss to Hawke's Bay.

Post-match, the Dominion summed it up: "In one of the most brilliant displays of Rugby Football ever given in a first-class match in the Dominion, Hawke's Bay, at Napier on Saturday, demonstrated its right to be regarded as the Premier Rugby Province of the Dominion by outclassing Wellington in all departments of the game. In stature, physical fitness, speed, rugby brains, but most of all, in their splendid defence, the home team went on brilliantly to win 58 to 8 against the challengers of the Ranfurly Shield."

Hawke's Bay opened the scoring in the opening minutes with a massive George Nepia dropped goal. This was followed by wing Grenside flashing in to score the first of his five tries. Grenside then set up Cyril Brownlie for the next try and the floodgates opened. Hawke's Bay led 24-0 at halftime.

Lindsay Knight, in his book Shield Fever, recounted the journey home for Wellington's players.

"And as the Wellington team left Napier by train for home they got a constant reminder of the hammering they had suffered. The clickety-click, clickety-click, clickety-click of the train wheels sounded horribly like 58-8, 58-8, 58-8."

Hawke's Bay went on to thrash Auckland 41-11 in Napier a week later and then defeat Canterbury 17-15 - in Christchurch in their last challenge of the season. A depleted Bay side lost the shield to Wairarapa in the first challenge of 1927 (11-15) before seemingly winning it back in a re-match in the ‘Battle of Solway' (21-10) only to have the result overturned by the NZRU on the basis that Hawke's Bay had fielded an ineligible player.

Wellington's Ranfurly Shield fortunes improved, and after falling to Wairarapa (3-9) in their next challenge in 1928, defeated Southland (12-3) in 1930 to win it back again.

Wellington and Hawke's Bay's Ranfurly Shield resumed in the 1960s with a series of hard-fought matches - to be continued.

References:

The Dominion newspaper, August 1922, July 1923, September 1925, August 1926.

Donoghue, Tim. Athletic Park : a lost football ground Tim Donoghue Publications in association with the Wellington Rugby Football Union, 1999.

Knight, Lindsay. Shield Fever, Rugby Press, Auckland, 1980