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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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fl 2 hours ago
‘The problem with this year’s Champions Cup? Too many English clubs’

"Right, so even if they were the 4 worst teams in Champions Cup, you'd still have them back by default?"

I think (i) this would literally never happen, (ii) it technically couldn't quite happen, given at least 1 team would qualify via the challenge cup, so if the actual worst team in the CC qualified it would have to be because they did really well after being knocked down to the challenge cup.

But the 13th-15th teams could qualify and to be fair I didn't think about this as a possibility. I don't think a team should be able to qualify via the Champions Cup if they finish last in their group.


Overall though I like my idea best because my thinking is, each league should get a few qualification spots, and then the rest of the spots should go to the next best teams who have proven an ability to be competitive in the champions cup. The elite French clubs generally make up the bulk of the semi-final spots, but that doesn't (necessarily) mean that the 5th-8th best French clubs would be competitive in a slimmed down champions cup. The CC is always going to be really great competition from the semis onwards, but the issue is that there are some pretty poor showings in the earlier rounds. Reducing the number of teams would help a little bit, but we could improve things further by (i) ensuring that the on-paper "worst" teams in the competition have a track record of performing well in the CC, and (ii) by incentivising teams to prioritise the competition. Teams that have a chance to win the whole thing will always be incentivised to do that, but my system would incentivise teams with no chance of making the final to at least try to win a few group stage matches.


"I'm afraid to say"

Its christmas time; there's no need to be afraid!

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