* Since rugby became professional Southland has lost many of its stars to other provinces. The grapevine tells me that the Ranfurly Shield win may result in at least one or two of them coming home.
* Garrick Tremain’s cartoon in today’s ODT shows a reporter and camera man at the reception desk of the NZ Cricket Council.
The reporter says: We’d like to do interviews with the captain, the coach, the selector, psychologist, nutritionist, trainer and the coach driver pelase.
The receptionist is on the phone and says: Daniel . . . couple of gentlemen to see you.
* There’s a rugby match in Tokyo tomorrow.
* What’s up with netball?
If you have anything to say on these or other sporting matters this is your chance to do so.
Homepaddock 
With the undoubted success of the 14 team NPC this year particularly among the provincial unions that throughout my lifetime produced some of our outstanding All Blacks why dont the NZRU executive spend some effort to find a solution to the dwindling popularity of the game among the Metro unions fans.
Nearly every game in the metro cities have had embarrassing crowd numbers whereas some games in the provinces have been sellouts.
Think Sir Brian Lochore, Sir Colin Meads, Roger Urbahn and Kevin Briscoe 1/2 backs at same time, Ian Kirkpatrick, Mark Shaw, Frank Oliver, and names like Brownlee, Cooke, Nepia.
In fact All Black teams before “the Professional era were often mainly from teams that now struggle to survive in the lower echelons of NZ rugby let alone the teams that will be relegated out of the premier division. Aspiring players will again go to the metro teams and instead of a pool of 450 players to provide depth we will stupidly reduce the pool of premier players to around 300.
One of the strongest eras of All Black rugby was when in the aftermath of the Cavaliers and a team that we called the Baby Blacks that gave NZ a pool of some 60 “current ABs” we went on to win our only world cup albiet no Springboks competing.
So with the wisdom of the current NZRU mismanagement denying the obvious we will watch Counties,Tasman,Manawatu,Northland, Bay of Plenty,and sooner or later Southland and Hawkes Bay (finalists this year) fighting oround the relegation zone and many potential ABs will struggle to be seen among the agegroup stars who will go to Auckland, Canterbury and Wellington to gain ‘exposure’.
To me it is just Dumb but to a trained BUSINESS success (remember Robbie Who) like Tew, it’s the easy solution to the finite cake he sees. Is he a bloody socialist, instead of worrying about the size of the cake, see if you can bake a bigger one.
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GD I think the change is starting to happen. Using Hawkes Bay as an example are not only retaining players eg Dagg, Guilford but are also getting top provincial players moving in Waldronm, Shoemark and others returning home Danny Lee and Berquist. It seems Cruden will stay in Manawatu perhaps even if they are removed from the NPC.
HP the Ranfurley Shield is a great attraction for players and if Southland get a couple of players in key positions for next year and retain the shield it will be great for NZ rugby.
The problem that has to be resolved is what GD touched on and that is the focus on Auckland, Wellington and Canterbury – the very areas where people do not go to games. Canterbury mainly develop and keep their players but both Auckland and Wellington do not respect the other provinces within their franchises. I said to INV2 earlier this year that HB should leave the Hurricanes and join up with the Highlanders.
Finally for Rugby in New Zealand to go forward Steve Tew has to be got rid of.
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RSomething else GD touched on. Remember when the All Black team was something like this:
McCormick (Canterbury)
Smith (North Otago)
Davis (Hawkes Bay)
McRae (Hawkes Bay)
Kirton (Otago)
Going (North Auckland)
Lochore (Wairarapa)
Tremain (Hawkes Bay)
Meads (King Country)
Meads (King Country)
Kirkpatrick (Poverty Bay)
Gray (Wellington)
McLeod (Counties)
Muller (Taranaki)
Now that exact team may not have actually taken the field but I think it makes a point.
By the way you did not have reserves because no one ever left the field and I will bet that none of those players spent any time in a gym.
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Finally well done Canterbury.
With all due respect to Southland was this game I have just watched actually the two best teams in the NPC playing off?
Canterbury prove they are the best play off team in NZ and I don’t think either Wellington or Southland will get near them next week.
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What a difference a ref makes. Thankyou Jonathon White letting two good teams exhibit their talents rather than a ref trying to be the game. Commiserations to H B a great season and if Crass Pillock had been up to speed you may have been there next week but sadly one team has to lose and next year who knows.
Well done Cantabs you showed us how to bounce back and good rugby next week in the final.
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I just realised my team at 9.07pm was short of a wing so will throw in:
Birtwhistle Waikato and /or Canterbury.
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pdm /HP.. If you mean the great Bill Birtwhistle, he was an AB mid 60s and was an Auk. His nephew Mark played for Samoa and Counties ( sent off at the Arms Park , Samoa v ales which Samoa won in the World Cup, I believe). However Bill Birtwhsitle was the model for the later Terry Wright, and weighed about the same as one of BG’s thighs!
PBT
(Former wing when we threw the ball in: ex London NZers, London Italians and Old Actionians whilst gracing those shores for a decade a wee while back.)
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Sorry Paul I disagree. As I recall Bill Birtwhistle started his first class career with Auckland but, he was playing for Waikato when first selected for the All Blacks and then moved to Canterbury – probably for work reasons in those days.
He was in the Waikato team that challenged for the shield in 1967 – the game the HB Herald Herald Tribune coined the Headline `The Magnificent Seven – tries to McRae 3 Davis 2 Tremain 2 all converted by Bishop 35-0. I think he was also in the Canterbury team that won the shield in 1969.
As you say he was skin and bone but had a very good sidestep and good acceleration.
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By the way I was at both the Waikato and Canterbury games.
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pdm/HP
I stand corrected, just checking Ron Palenski’s The All Blackography….Before he went south, Bill Birtwhistle played for College Rifles, a venerable club here not 500m from where I write this.
I will reflect on this great age of New Zealand rugby as I wend my weary way over 42ks of Auckland Marathon in the morning… it should take my mind of the pain in the feet!! ( Mind you, I played outside BG when we were 11/12year olds for Ponsonby.. aah, how good we were!!…except he stayed good!)
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