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NZ Herald
2 days ago
- Sport
- NZ Herald
The greatest rivalries in sport - Auckland v Canterbury and the battle for the 1980s
Rugby, in fact, was relatively late to the idea of championships. New Zealand only got a national provincial championship in 1976, with rugby until then a series of traditional annual fixtures combined with ad hoc arrangements made between board chairmen. The Ranfurly Shield was both in the centre of the rugby room and frustratingly out of the reach of most. When the NPC did arrive, it was not necessarily dominated by the biggest unions. Bay of Plenty won the inaugural championship under the guidance of Eric Anderson and in the first five years there were five different winners, with Canterbury, Wellington, Counties and Manawatū following BoP's footsteps. By the time 1982 rolled around, Auckland, the largest union in the country by some margin (it still had all the North Harbour clubs at that stage), had still to win. Canterbury had won just once. If anything, Wellington, with their star-studded backline, were the strongest of the main centres, though they were rudely shocked when Canterbury stormed Athletic Park to win the Shield in 1981. As a country, the start of the '80s was a time of monumental change. In 1981, the Springbok tour literally divided the country with barbed wire. In 1984, the Fourth Labour Government would start a process of deregulation that forever altered the country's economics. Auckland, with its new skyline of construction cranes and high-rise buildings, was the obvious benefactor. The rugby and societal changes would combine to foster the domestic game's greatest rivalry, one that with the gradual diminishing of the provincial game, will never be equalled. It all coalesced with a match described with only the merest hint of hyperbole as The Game of the Century. After years of underachievement, John Hart, a yappy little former halfback from the Waitemata club, who worked at corporate behemoth Fletcher Challenge, got his hands on the team in the blue and white hoops. In the same year, the Ranfurly Shield holders turned their team over to a gruff Omihi farmer who'd come through the classic Canterbury path of boarding at a posh school, in his case St Andrew's, before returning to the land. Alex Wyllie, a former All Black and part of the infamous 'Black Hat Gang' on the controversial 1972-73 tour to Great Britain and Ireland, had little time for yappy halfbacks. This was the age of Grizz and Harty — two men who could not have been cut from more different cloth and who perfectly embodied their home provinces. The teams they created were in many respects cast in their own image, but in other ways contradicted it. Auckland might have been slick and corporate in comparison to their Mainland rivals, but they were not soft. Canterbury might have been more hardbitten and callused, but they were not without flair and mischief. They represented provinces with a natural suspicion of each other, though the disdain mainly flowed in one direction. This was the age when the pejorative term JAFA arrived, when the country perceived Aucklanders to be living in an episode of the show Gloss that would arrive midway through the decade — all big hair, shoulder pads, cocktails and lattes. As Auckland seemingly boomed, the rest of the country wasn't doing as well, especially those places that relied on manufacturing. The rural-urban divide, magnified by the different attitudes to the Springbok tour, was widening. Auckland, with its multicultural, financial outlook, was increasingly seen as a land apart. Wrote Grant Fox in The Game The Goal: 'It is a risky business to be seen in some way to be defending Auckland these days. There has been, in varying degrees of intensity, a complex out there about Auckland and Auckland rugby. I think it has something to do with success… something to do with the big city thing. It is unmistakably there.' As the rivalry developed, it was almost like Hart had Auckland, Grizz had The Rest of New Zealand. In 1982, Hart took Auckland to their first NPC title. Canterbury were second by the barest of margins. They actually beat Auckland at Eden Park, but a draw against 1979 champions Counties proved costly as Hart's men won the championship by a single point. The following year the balance was restored, with Canterbury romping through the season unbeaten, the highlight being a 31-9 pasting of Auckland in the Ranfurly Shield challenge on Lancaster Park. Perhaps nothing illustrates how much rugby has changed as the fact this scoreline was seen as seismic. Said Wayne Smith, who was playing first five-eighth, in Grizz - The Legend: 'We were in the tunnel, ready to run on to the field, and Grizz suddenly grabbed my jersey and said, 'Run it from everywhere.' You know, he just had a feeling, maybe he'd seen something in the Aucklanders' eyes, maybe he just knew we were at our peak and could tear them apart.' A lot of the country rejoiced at Auckland's embarrassment, as this was a team that was just starting to gather a swagger. Grant Fox was controlling things with metronomic accuracy at first-five, while John Kirwan, a blond butcher's apprentice plucked from third grade, was rampaging up and down the wing. Andy Haden, the Whetton twins and John Drake were marauding in the pack. If Canterbury were great in '83, Auckland were ridiculous the next year, winning nine out of 10 and compiling a points differential of +361. They put 50 on Waikato, 53 on Manawatū, 65 on both Bays, Plenty and Hawke's, but most staggeringly of all, they scored 32 for the loss of just three when they smashed Canterbury. Fans were already salivating at the prospect of a Shield challenge the following year. They got their wish. Canterbury were going for a record 26 defences when Auckland rolled into town. Lancaster Park was packed to the gunwales, with kids lining the dead-ball lines by the end of the game, which would create iconic images. It was such a febrile atmosphere that the Canterbury players ran to each side of the ground to thank the crowd before the match. It didn't help. Auckland rinsed the home team in the lineouts and sauntered to an unbelievable 24-0 halftime lead. From Grizz - The Legend: Wyllie wasn't angry about his team being down 24-0 at halftime, more sorry for them. They weren't losing with dignity. Victor Simpson noted there were no recriminations. 'He came out, grabbed the ball, said, 'Look, they scored their points with this, so can you'.' Slowly, then quickly, the Cantabs got back in the match as Auckland started to fluff their lines. As time ticked down, Canterbury scored two tries in two minutes to close the score to 28-23. With time up Smith hoisted the ball to the heavens. It eluded flailing fullback Lindsay Harris and bounced high into the in-goal with Craig Green, Kirwan and Fox in pursuit. The ball bounced Kirwan's way and he palmed it dead and referee Bob Francis whistled the game over. Auckland celebrate winning the Ranfurly Shield from Canterbury in 1985. The Cantabs were left to ponder their slow start while the rest of the country, watching live on Sport on One, marvelled at the spectacle. Wrote Graham Hutchins in Magic Matches: 'Everyone won something at Lancaster Park in 1985. Auckland the Ranfurly Shield, Canterbury undying respect. And for once the media hype was right. It was, in all probability, that most elusive and ephemeral of any rugby promoter's dream — the match of the century.' The rivalry continued, though the main characters would soon shuffle off, with Hart and Wyllie becoming Sir Brian Lochore's assistants in the inaugural World Cup success. After some tortuous politicking, they would end up as co-coaches of the 1991 campaign where their oil-and-water personalities would ensure it was never a happy, cohesive or successful campaign. There were flashpoints in the NPC, particularly in 1990 when Canterbury contrived to ensure there were no scrums following the sending off of hooker John Buchan in the fourth minute. His replacement, Phil Cropper, (there's a name worth googling), informed the ref he was unable to play in the front row and weirdness ensued on the field and friction off it, where Gary Whetton insinuated that Canterbury were not real men. In 1996, with the birth of professional rugby, the rivalry shifted to the Blues and Crusaders. The essence was still there, but it was never quite as piquant. Professionalism flooded the game with money, so the them-and-us element of playing Auckland was never as strong. If anything, the Crusaders, not Auckland, have taken on the role of 'Them'. - Words by Dylan Cleaver
NZ Herald
28-06-2025
- Sport
- NZ Herald
Magpies: Prop Joel Hintz retires after one too many head knocks
Joel Hintz in one of his proudest moments, hoisting the Ranfurly Shield as the Magpies step off the plane in Napier returning home after the 2020 shield challenge win over Otago in Dunedin. Photo / NZME Hawke's Bay Magpies prop Joel Hintz says his sudden retirement has come after one too many 'head knocks'. A Nash Cup club match for Central in front of the home Waipukurau crowd in April was the 28-year-old's last game. While he'd never been 'knocked out', there'd been several concussion
NZ Herald
15-06-2025
- Sport
- NZ Herald
Fifa Club World Cup live updates: Auckland City FC v Bayern Munich, group game
Live updates of the Fifa Club World Cup game between Auckland City FC and Bayern Munich in Cincinnati. On any normal Monday morning, Auckland City defender and vice-captain Adam Mitchell is planning his week in the property market. The 29-year-old is a real estate agent with Harcourts, working alongside his father in the industry. But this Monday morning (4am NZT), Mitchell will be running out in front of a capacity crowd in Cincinnati, as the Sandringham-based side take on Bayern Munich FC in the Fifa Club World Cup. And not just that – Mitchell will be tasked with trying to stop England captain Harry Kane, one of the most revered strikers in the world. It's another reminder of the Herculean task ahead of Auckland City's amateur team. Also in the squad are a primary school teacher, an insurance broker, a barber, a sales rep at Coca Cola, a couple of retail salesman, a car detailer, a regional manager for a car detailer and a handful of students. 'Honestly, as a young New Zealander, you would never think that you would be playing against the likes of Bayern Munich,' Mitchell told 'I'm not even sure there's been a situation where Auckland City and Bayern Munich have been in the same sentence! 'It's just an amazing feeling and we have an opportunity to test ourselves against the world's best and we're going to give it our all.' The greatest underdogs battle in New Zealand sports history? There have been some unlikely match-ups over the years, from minnows taking on the big-city teams in the Ranfurly Shield, to the 1982 All Whites being pitched against Brazil, with that edition of the Selecao being regarded as one of the best in their history. There have been David-and-Goliath scenarios at Olympics and Commonwealth Games, in rugby league internationals, in tennis tournaments and at the Melbourne Cup. But it's hard to imagine there has been anything quite as outrageous as this. Bayern Munich are European football royalty, one of the biggest and richest teams on the continent. They have recently chalked up their 34th Bundesliga title and have won six Uefa Champions League titles from 11 finals. They have been the most dominant club in Germany since the early 1970s, with massive financial resources and a huge fan base. They have 20 national team players across their squad, including some of the biggest names in football. They have more that 4,000 official fan clubs across the globe and had revenues of more than $1.5 billion last year. Auckland City's income in the last financial year was less than $1 million. Their amateur team have to take leave from work and studies to be at this tournament, where they will experience a few weeks of living and training like professionals. They have been kings of Oceania club football for a long time – winning 12 of the last 15 editions of the Oceania Champions League – and have enjoyed some storied moments at previous editions of the Fifa Club World Cup. But this new, revamped version, with 32 teams and a billion dollars of Fifa prizemoney, has created a completely different challenge. Perhaps the best way to sum up the disparity is from the relevant squad values. On the open market, Bayern Munich's squad have an estimated worth of $1.8b, while Auckland City's would be priced at around $8.80m. The Bavarian team spent the best part of €53m ($101m) to sign French international Michael Olise from Premier League side Crystal Palace last year. As one Auckland City official joked, 'that would be enough money to run our club for 200 years'. The smallest fish in Fifa's biggest pond This Club World Cup is being run along the same lines as a Fifa World Cup. There is huge prizemoney, massive stadiums (though crowds will vary) and team are ferried by private jet across the country, flying to games and then returning to their city base camps the same night or the next morning. In this way, Auckland City are by far the smallest entity ever to take part in one of Fifa's grandiose tournaments. They have a shade over 500 club members and a handful of fulltime staff, though that contingent has been bolstered for this event. In terms of scale, it feels like a crazy scenario – similar to the Cayman Islands or Greenland being at the World Cup next year.
Otago Daily Times
11-06-2025
- Sport
- Otago Daily Times
Smith set to blow final whistle on reffing career
Gary Smith will trade in his yellow and red cards for a gold card. It is a cracking line from the long-serving referee. The Cromwell resident does not hit retirement age until next year, so he has to wait until April for said gold card. But he is planning on retiring from refereeing a lot sooner. This weekend, actually. He will officiate in the White Horse Cup match between Upper Clutha and Matakanui Combined, ending a 30-year career. It is his second retirement. The first one did not stick. He kept going for another seven years. And this retirement is more of a graduated retreat in some ways. He plans to stay involved with the sport and coach some up-and-coming referees. "I always think, why did I take up, and it's because I love it," he said. "And if you haven't got referees, you haven't got a rugby game, and I'm passionate about it. "But it's got to the stage where I'm turning 65, and so I gave away the yellow and red cards for a gold card." Smith was motivated to take up refereeing after a chat with former referee Colin Hawke, who played an important role in two infamous moments in Otago sport. Hawke penalised Otago hooker David Latta for getting offside late in the 1994 Ranfurly Shield against Canterbury, and Andrew Mehrtens stepped up and kicked the winner. Hawke awarded Auckland a penalty try during the NPC final against Otago the following year. Smith was not a fan of either decision and met up with Hawke shortly after. They had a good chat about refereeing and he was ultimately won over. "I went along to the South Canterbury referees meeting and met Colin. He said, and he's made it public since, the penalty try would probably be a different decision now. "I respected that and I said, 'you coach me for a month and I'll give it a crack'. "Then I got to appreciate what's actually involved. I think if every supporter or rugby player had a couple of games under their belt as a referee, I think there'd be a lot less sideline abuse." There are a lot of know-alls on the sideline whose knowledge about the laws of rugby can be quite limited. But Smith said he did not always notice the abuse. He also understood most of the time it was just passion bubbling to the surface. "You've got to realise there's a difference between targeted abuse and passionate abuse, and most of it's passionate. "You hear it, but you don't. I've never had too many issues. "I just ignore it and I don't take it personally. Once you get in the clubroom, everything's left on the field most of the time. "Probably the hardest age group is that junior age-group, where the parents think their kids are all that, you know?" Smith said he had officiated in more than 500 games, and more than 200 of those had been at the top club level. He stayed involved so long because "at the end of the day, I'd love to be still playing if I had my choice". "It's the best seat in the house, and the best option to be out in the middle". Smith was selected in a South Island Zone squad in 2003 and had the opportunity to officiate at a higher level. He refereed "several women's NPC games". "Basically, that squad was to try and get us into that Heartland squad, so I never made that next step up, unfortunately." Despite missing out, he continued to referee, and one of the highlights was the game between Dunstan High School and Otago Boys' in 2010. Dunstan recorded a historic 9-8 win and he watched from the middle. Smith will miss the people the most but he is also ready for a change. "It's going to be a happy, sad day. But I've sacrificed a lot of hunting and fishing and a bit of family life. "That's a good commitment we make, you know. So teams can play rugby on a Saturday."
Newsroom
08-06-2025
- Sport
- Newsroom
Kiwi Ganley moves from fear to fun in Test refereeing
When Natarsha Ganley locked her rugby referee's whistle away for a few years, little did she know that she would return and go on to reach the highest stage the role has to offer. Now 33, Tarsh, as she prefers to be called, was named last month as one of 10 referees who will take charge of matches at the Rugby World Cup in England this August and September. After a full-on start to her refereeing career, Ganley took three years off to solidify her off-field career, before Chris Pollock, New Zealand Rugby's high performance referee manager reached out to her. Pollock needed help during the 2022 Farah Palmer Cup (FPC) and called Ganley, who had made her debut refereeing in the competition as a 21-year-old in 2013. Pollock's contact reignited something in Ganley as she went on to officiate a number of fixtures that season, including the final between Canterbury and Auckland. 'Just being back in the environment, it definitely reignited the passion. I was more mature, I could actually go out there and be myself on the field,' Ganley says. 'We speak a lot about refereeing from a place of fear versus a place of enjoyment. The fear is more around, am I going to get dropped, am I going have a bad game, what will people think of me. My mindset in that time off had shifted to, if I get dropped then I'll just go back to living this awesome life that I've got and friends and family and everything there, so the worst case scenario was, oh well, that was fun, I'll go back to it, and it meant I could actually enjoy the games and have fun.' After her successful comeback in 2022, the following year brought a number of firsts, starting in July, when she was appointed to referee a Ranfurly Shield game, as the Wellington Lions defended the Log O' Wood against Horowhenua Kapiti in Levin. 'That was amazing. To be the second ever female to do that. Mum and Dad came down from Whangārei, so it was eight or nine hours in the car for them,' Ganley says. Ganley completed a full FPC season, including the final which was again between Auckland and Canterbury. She was also selected to referee at the six-team second tier WXV 2 competition in Cape Town. This would have been her international debut, but a surprise was in store. 'The night before the FPC final I got a call asking what I was doing the following weekend and I was asked to fly to Japan to do a Test match [against Fiji] and so I ended up making my international debut a few weeks before WXV 2. It was my first time to Japan and we were based out of Tokyo and it was a fantastic experience, again, refereeing from a place of enjoyment,' Ganley says. The woman in the middle – of her family – with Mum Kathy, Uncle Craig, Dad Paul, brother Darren and Poppa. Photo: Supplied Ganley went on to make her Six Nations debut in April 2024. She performed assistant referee duties for the Italy v Scotland encounter in Parma, before taking charge of Ireland v Scotland in Belfast the following week. Earlier this year she again referred the Scotland v Ireland match, this time in Edinburgh. She also made her Super Rugby Pacific assistant referee debut in front of a capacity crowd in Napier in February as the Hurricanes hosted the Fijian Drua. 'I've just been very, very lucky on the journey that I've had, having the right support in terms of friends and family and a great mentor and coach in Brendan Pickerill to start with and then Chris Pollock over the last few years, I think all the different achievements can be credited to everyone that's helped me,' Ganley says. The Rugby World Cup will feature 16 teams, an expansion from the previous 12 and a total of 22 match officials (10 referees, six assistant referees and six Television Match Officials) representing 12 nations will take charge of the 32 matches. All of the 16 on-field appointments are female, with one of the six TMOs, Rachel Horton from Australia. Ganley controlling the Scotland v Ireland Six Nations match in 2024. Ganley will be one of two referees representing New Zealand, alongside Maggie Cogger-Orr, who is not only one of the most experienced female referees in the world, but also the Women's referee development manager at NZ Rugby. Formal preparations for Ganley and her colleagues start in mid-June, with a week-long camp in Portugal. There will be team bonding, fitness work and discussions to bring alignment around law and game situations. After Portugal, the officials will take care of tournament warm-up games for approximately six weeks, with Ganley in charge of Australia v Wales and Fiji v Samoa. She'll also be assistant referee for other games, a role she will also fill in England. Away from the field, Ganley will be getting her strength and conditioning right; she's working with her trainer, who she sees twice a week. She's also working with a dietician and a sports psychologist, making sure she's in the best possible physical and mental shape for the challenges ahead. Looking at that amount of work, you'd be forgiven for assuming that Ganley is a full-time referee, but she isn't. Ganley stepped down from her role as a Compliance Analyst for Hobson Wealth Partners when the firm was bought out and the flexibility she needed for refereeing was reduced. She's been working for software company Intrahealth for the past nine months in a work from home role which has accommodated her rugby commitments this year. But even an adaptable employer like that has their limitations, and Ganley has recently resigned so that she can concentrate on the sport's showpiece event. If she's not refereeing on the international scene, she lets the North Harbour Rugby Referees Association know she's available to help out back at grassroots level. One of the association's initiatives for 2025 is a women and girls refereeing course at clubs, being led by Rebecca Stanaway. The courses are targeted specifically for females, trying to make it a better experience for young women coming though, via a group dynamic. Officiating Waikato in the 2024 FPC. Photo: Matt @ yourmoment_photos 'Anything that increases awareness in a fun environment is going to be good for everyone,' Ganley says. She's from a rugby family, rugby is their 'love language'. Tarsh and her two younger brothers played growing up. Their dad would coach while their mum would manage and have the oranges on the sideline. But there was no female team for Tarsh to play in past intermediate so she fell back into netball. When she was 17, there was an NZ Rugby 'You make the call' refereeing course. She was playing touch for her dad's team and one of the guys in the touch team suggested she went along and gave it a go. All these years on, can Ganley see a time in the future she becomes a full-time referee? 'I'm not too sure in terms of New Zealand [going full-time]. Overseas you've got Aimee Barrett-Theron out of South Africa, you've got Hollie Davidson out of Scotland and you've Sara Cox out of England. I think their systems are different to us down in New Zealand. They've got rugby 50 out of 52 weeks of the year whereas I think down in New Zealand, for the female game especially, we don't have enough rugby to justify a full-time position. I hope it is on the horizon but we'd need more rugby or women doing the top [men's] level which Maggie [Cogger-Orr] is pushing the boundary for,' Ganley says. Regardless of whether she's full-time or not, Ganley's performances, as well as those of all referees, are reviewed in huge detail. Match statistics as well as decisions are examined with feedback and an overall rating provided. Alongside that, there's the ongoing scrutiny from the rugby public. 'There's so much detail that goes into a review and so I'd love the public to see what it actually takes [to get to the top level]. I'd love them to see the sacrifices and the dedication we put into it because my social life is non-existent. I don't know how people with families do it. It takes some wonderful support behind the curtains I guess around what actually allows people to do this and to do it well and be successful. It is a full-time job,' Ganley says.
