Ranfurly Shield

Ranfurly Shield

Current season or competition: 2012
Sport	Rugby Union
Founded	1904
No. of teams	14 ITM Cup 12 Heartland Championship
Country(ies)	New Zealand
Most recent champion(s)	Waikato (9 titles)
Most titles	Auckland (16 titles)
TV partner(s)	Sky Sport
Official website	www.ITMCup.co.nz

The Ranfurly Shield, colloquially known as the Log o' Wood, is a trophy in New Zealand's domestic rugby union competition. First played for in 1904, the Ranfurly Shield is based on a challenge system, rather than a league or knockout competition as with most football trophies. The holding union must defend the Shield in challenge matches, and if a challenger defeats them, they become the new holder of the Shield.

The Shield is currently held by Waikato, who won it from Taranaki on 3 October 2012. Although the professional era of rugby has seen competitions such as the ITM Cup and Super Rugby detracting from the pre-eminence of the Ranfurly Shield, many still regard it as the greatest prize in New Zealand domestic rugby, thanks to its long history, the fact that every challenge is a sudden-death defence of the Shield, and that any team, no matter how lowly, has a chance to win.

History

1950 South Canterbury Team

In 1901 the Governor of New Zealand, the Earl of Ranfurly, announced that he would present a cup to the New Zealand Rugby Football Union, to be used as the prize in a competition of their choosing. When the trophy, which actually turned out to be a shield, arrived, the NZRFU decided that it would be awarded to the union with the best record in the 1902 season, and thenceforth be the subject of a challenge system. Auckland, unbeaten in 1902, were presented with the shield. The shield was also designed as a trophy for football, not rugby. This was because the picture in the centrepiece was a football one. The picture was modified by adding goal posts on the football goal that comprised the picture, to create a rugby scene.

1974 South Canterbury Team

Auckland were on tour in 1903 and did not play any home games, and thus did not have to defend the Shield. Their first defence was against Wellington in 1904, and was unsuccessful.

Since the introduction of the National Provincial Championship in 1976, all home games a Shield-holder plays in the NPC or its successors, the ITM Cup and Heartland Championship, are automatically challenge matches.

Ranfurly Shield Visit to Shannon 1927

Auckland hold the record for the greatest number of consecutive Shield defences which stands at 61 matches between 14 September 1985 and 18 September 1993. During this period Auckland took the Shield on tour to provincial unions that, mainly for financial reasons, would be unlikely to be able to mount a challenge for the trophy. While dismissed by some critics, usually because of the one-sided scores, it was widely regarded as a success by those involved.

In 1994 when Canterbury wrestled the Shield from Waikato, the shield was in battered condition, with large cracks, chips and peeled varnish. Nearly a century of use had taken its toll. Canterbury player Chris England, skilled in woodwork, fully renovated the Shield, bringing it back once again into pristine condition.

Challenges

The Shield holder at the end of each season is required to accept at least seven challenges for the following year. All home games during league play, but not during knockout playoffs, in the ITM Cup or Heartland Championship are automatic challenges. The remaining shield defences must be made up of challenges from unions in the other domestic competition. For example, since North Harbour, an Air New Zealand Cup (now ITM Cup) team, held the Shield at the end of the 2006 Cup season despite losing their home quarter-final to Otago, they were forced to defend the Shield against Heartland Championship teams during the 2007 pre-season. Having successfully done so, all their home fixtures in the round-robin phase were Shield defences until they lost the shield to Waikato.

The Shield-holder is never forced to defend the Shield in an away match, although they may choose to, as Auckland, for example, did on a number of occasions during their record tenure as Shield-holder between 1985 and 1993. More recently, Auckland played both their mandatory defences against Heartland teams in 2008 on the road.

If a challenger successfully takes the Shield, all of their home matches for the rest of the season are defences of it.

Proposed rules changes

In August 2008, the New Zealand Rugby Union released a competitions review that proposed dramatic changes to the Ranfurly Shield rules:

• Once a team has successfully defended the Shield four times, all of the holder's subsequent matches in league play would be mandatory defences, whether home or away. The Shield, however, will not be at stake in semifinals or finals.
• If an Air New Zealand Cup team holds the Shield at the end of the league season, that season's winners of the Meads Cup and Lochore Cup, the two trophies contested in the second-level Heartland Championship, will receive automatic challenges in the following year.

The changes were not implemented, but did receive support from Auckland, which held the Shield when the NZRU released its report.

Tally table

Ranfurly Shield Past Holders
Union	Won	Defences
Wellington	6 August 1904	4
Auckland	26 August 1905	23
Taranaki	16 August 1913	6
Wellington	10 September 1914	15
Southland	15 September 1920	1
Wellington	10 September 1921	2
Hawke's Bay	9 August 1922	24
Wairarapa	3 June 1927	2
Manawhenua	6 August 1927	2
Canterbury	7 September 1927	1
Wairarapa	18 July 1928	8
Southland	31 August 1929	3
Wellington	3 September 1930	1
Canterbury	22 August 1931	15
Hawke's Bay	16 August 1934	2
Auckland	8 September 1934	1
Canterbury	10 August 1935	4
Otago	21 September 1935	8
Southland	31 July 1937	0
Otago	30 July 1938	5
Southland	10 September 1938	11
Otago	2 August 1947	18
Canterbury	16 August 1950	0
Wairarapa	2 September 1950	0
South Canterbury	16 September 1950	0
North Auckland	30 September 1950	2
Waikato	18 August 1951	6
Auckland	9 August 1952	0
Waikato	23 August 1952	6
Wellington	1 August 1953	5
Canterbury	19 September 1953	23
Wellington	22 September 1956	4
Otago	24 August 1957	1
Taranaki	28 September 1957	13
Southland	5 September 1959	0
Auckland	23 September 1959	2
North Auckland	20 August 1960	1
Auckland	31 August 1960	25
Wellington	31 August 1963	0
Taranaki	7 September 1963	15
Auckland	11 September 1965	3
Waikato	27 August 1966	0
Hawke's Bay	24 September 1966	21
Canterbury	27 September 1969	9
Auckland	28 August 1971	1
North Auckland	18 September 1971	6
Auckland	26 August 1972	0
Canterbury	5 September 1972	2
Marlborough	28 July 1973	6
South Canterbury	17 August 1974	1
Wellington	3 September 1974	1
Auckland	21 September 1974	10
Manawatu	21 August 1976	13
North Auckland	12 September 1978	5
Auckland	21 September 1979	6
Waikato	7 September 1980	8
Wellington	1 August 1981	4
Canterbury	18 September 1982	25
Auckland	14 September 1985	61
Waikato	18 September 1993	5
Canterbury	3 September 1994	9
Auckland	23 September 1995	3
Taranaki	24 August 1996	1
Waikato	8 September 1996	1
Auckland	4 October 1996	6
Waikato	5 October 1997	21
Canterbury	23 September 2000	23
Auckland	11 October 2003	2
Bay of Plenty	15 August 2004	1
Canterbury	5 September 2004	14
North Harbour	24 September 2006	3
Waikato	24 August 2007	0
Canterbury	1 September 2007	1
Auckland	29 September 2007	5
Wellington	20 September 2008	4
Canterbury	29 August 2009	4
Southland	22 October 2009	6
Canterbury	9 October 2010	2
Southland	23 July 2011	2
Taranaki	24 August 2011	7
Waikato	3 October 2012	1

Ranfurly Shield Table
Place	Union	Wins	Defences
1	Auckland	16	148
2	Canterbury	14	129
3	Wellington	10	40
4	Waikato	9	48
5	Southland	7	22
6	Taranaki	5	43
7	Otago	4	32
8	North Auckland	4	14
9	Hawke's Bay	3	47
10	Wairarapa	3	10
11	South Canterbury	2	1
12	Manawatu	1	13
13	Marlborough	1	6
14	North Harbour	1	3
15	Manawhenua	1	2
16	Bay of Plenty	1	1

correct as of 13 October 2012

External links

• Rampant Aucks take the 2007 shield
• Ranfurly Shield at nzrugby.com (history, stories, audio highlights, trivia)