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History repeats! Otago lose Ranfurly Shield to Hawke's Bay after one-week reign

Ash Dixon. (Photo by Joe Allison/Getty Images)

As was the case in 2013, Hawke’s Bay have travelled to Dunedin and snatched the Ranfurly Shield from Otago just a week into the southerners’ reign.

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While that match ended with just two points separating the sides, Hawke’s Bay victory this year was much more convincing, with the Magpies triumphing 28-9.

The Magpies scored the only tries of the match, with Lolagi Visinia, Folau Fakatava, Isaia Walker-Leawere and Kurt Baker all touching down for the visiting side. While Visinia’s score was an absolute pearler of a team effort, Fakatava and Walker-Leawere’s were exceptional individual efforts.

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The panel from Sky Sports NZ’s The Breakdown talk all things rugby down under as the New Zealand provincial competition continues and we draw one week closer to the Bledisloe Cup test matches.

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The panel from Sky Sports NZ’s The Breakdown talk all things rugby down under as the New Zealand provincial competition continues and we draw one week closer to the Bledisloe Cup test matches.

Otago banked the early points through two quick Josh Ioane penalties but everything fell the Magpies’ way after that.

Visinia and Fakatava scored before halftime, then Otago fullback Vilimoni Koroi was sin-binned for recklessly taking out Hawke’s Bay’s replacement flyhalf, Caleb Makene late in the second stanza.

Ioane had kicked a third penalty shortly before Koroi’s yellow card but any hint of a fightback from the Shield holders was quickly snuffed out by Walker-Leawere’s 50-metre solo effort.

Adding further insult to injury, Otago flanker Slade McDowall was then sent off for a swinging arm in the tackle.

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Experienced fullback Kurt Baker touched down with minutes remaining in the match to well and truly seal the result, but the writing had been on the wall for some time already.

Hawke’s Bay’s victory marks the third time that the Shield has changed hanged this year – and the third time in as many weeks. Otago won the Shield off Taranaki last weekend after the Bulls dominated traditional powerhouses Canterbury a week prior.

The Magpies, at least, have a week off before they’ll have to put the Ranfurly Shield up against Northland in two weeks’ time. Otago, meanwhile, must travel to Wellington next weekend.

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Tom 55 minutes ago
England player ratings vs South Africa | 2024 Autumn Nations Series

I'm not sure about the Earl incident. I recall him missing an important tackle but he's certainly a quick flanker. SB has him cover centre when doing 6-2, fortunately we've never had to see how that would play out.


I'm not getting on board I'm afraid. The fact that England are scoring tries and being competitive despite being so amazingly disorganised and managing to lose every match is even more frustrating. The players front up and make a good account of themselves physically but the defence since Felix Jones is so much less organised. Players are flying out the line all over the place, there is no cohesion at all... And the attack... Literally it's just Marcus Smith.. and a bit of Feyi Waboso. Almost every player in the backline has done nothing offensively because the structure just isn't there for it, there's nothing creative or innovative to challenge the defense. The last 20 mins against the Boks it was just runners on crash ball off the 9, over and over getting smashed behind the gainline and turned over. These players are capable of doing much better.


We did score tries under Eddie but the backs didn't create anything. It worked well for a while but when we no longer had a big pack with the likes of Haskell and the Vunipolas playing well, it stopped working very rapidly. Once we started losing the gainline and couldn't exert so much pressure through bullying, they suddenly all looked clueless and we finished 5th in consecutive six nations.


I'd love to be on board, I've watched every game for the last 15 years and what I see is just super frustrating. It's groundhog day. The same mistakes over and over and no sign of progress. They've pushed some good sides close in this series but there is no acknowledgement of the issues, they keep saying how close they are and they're a growing team etc... he's been in charge for 2 years and has hundreds of caps in the side. This will end poorly, he's not the right guy, but thank you for trying.

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