Hicks Bay led their hosts 6-0 at halftime, courtesy of two penalty kicks by first-five Te Rangi Fraser.
In the 57th minute, first-five-cum-halfback Nathan Henry tap-kicked the ball from a penalty award just outside the Hicks Bay 22 and fullback Verdon Bartlett spun the ball right, only for No.8 Hoani Te Moana to be brought down just short of the corner.
Two rucks later, the ball was sent left and left-wing Ron-Paul McRoberts found player-coach and blindside flanker Haimona Waititi, who scored out wide. Reserve first five Benny Haerewa converted for a 7-6 kead.
At the 63rd minute disaster struck.
Hicks Bay reserve No.8 Anton King suffered a broken right leg near his own goal-line. Surrounded by spectators and officials and kept warm by their jackets, he lay nine metres from the left corner for 25 minutes.
The St John ambulance at Cape Runaway had already taken two players injured in the curtain-raiser between TVC and Waiapu women to Gisborne Hospital and it would have been dangerous to lift and carry King from the field.
But with Poverty Bay referee Terry Reeves about to call the game off, King, with assistance, crawled from the field of play to the sideline at 3.48pm.
His gut-wrenching yet inspirational exit, which allowed the game to continue, set the stage for teammate and fullback Tipene Meihana to deliver the most important pass of the year.
Meihana put right-wing and Hicks Bay’s Most Valuable Player of the final, Waikura Delamere, away to score in the right corner in the 74th minute and Fraser’s sideline conversion saw Hicks Bay restore their earlier six-point lead.
The Victory Club needed a converted try to win but in the 85th minute Reeves penalised TVC for a double movement a body length from the spot on which Anton King had fallen.
Fraser’s kick found touch, the game was over and the crowd poured on to the field.
That Hicks Bay had been able to maintain their discipline in defence when the odds were against them was amazing.
Their two previous finals appearances had bore them no winning fruit — a 26-11 loss to Hikurangi at Ruatoria in their centenary year (2014); a 14-5 defeat to Tokararangi at Te Araroa the following year.
The captain of Hicks Bay this season, second-five Manahi Brooking, had to leave the field with cramp in his left calf muscle just before play resumed after Delamere’s try.
It was a selfless act but Brooking had faith his men could get home without him for team, club and community.
“To Anton and the boys — we gave it all we had, fronted up defensively in those last 17 minutes and it paid off for us,” Brooking said.
“We made history.”
Coaching duo Aaron King and Warren Henderson, who have since 2018 guided one of the competition’s grittiest sides, were ecstatic. Tears of joy, lump in the throat, tug at the heart-strings, 2023 at the Cape was all that and more.
It will take its place in Ngāti Porou East Coast folklore alongside “Blood, Sweat and Tears” in 2004, “Waiapu” in 2012, “Extra time” in 2017 and “The Kick” in 2021.
“Our team went to Cape Runaway with clear heads,” King said.
“Warren and I told them that we didn’t get them to the final; they got themselves there. All we did was put them in the right spots. Now it was up to them.
“This year our boys put in 100 percent on and off the field and new players such as Te Rangi and Tipene had a great influence on our backs.
“All we’d known before he (Fraser) came was how to bash it up. Our youngsters look up to him, rightly so, and I’d like also to acknowledge our manager Graeme Summersby and his wife Pauline.
“Graeme was doing that big, hard job before I began. He’s here on Tuesdays and Thursdays at training, and on Saturdays, too. He’s one of the greatest men we’ve got.”
TVC captain openside flanker Moana Mato, who in 2017 led TVC to their first title in 27 years, said: “That was an epic final. Congratulations to Hicks Bay on winning a very physical game . . . it was a first championship win for their club and they totally deserve it.”
With the Victory Club having its origins in the drive to provide support and recreation for returned servicemen post-World War 2, Mato’s description of Anton King’s intestinal fortitude resonated— “he was a soldier”.
Mato won the coin toss on a clear, cool day and chose to run into the sou’ westerly breeze.
The game was high drama and consternation from the start, with Fraser kicking off long and TVC losing the ball forward on their own goal-line.
Fraser kicked penalty goals directly in front of the posts in the eighth minute and 36m back, 10m off the left sideline 41 minutes in.
Such was the scoring in the first half — a dry offering, on that evidence alone — but that doesn’t describe both sides’ meaty attempts to impose their will on each other at the scrum, or dominate the breakdown.
It doesn’t speak to the excellent work of TVC player-coach blindside flanker Haimona Waititi and his Hicks Bay opposite Weihana Delamere at the lineout.
Te Moana carried the ball powerfully and put Hicks Bay’s ball-runners down with relish.
Twice in the first half, Fraser’s huge boot carved off 40m to relieve the pressure on his forwards, yet Hicks Bay were never safe.
At the quarter-hour mark, but for a handling error TVC might with a pass have taken advantage of an overlap to score.
And 25 minutes in, Mato might have been in to score off a tap-kick quickly taken had he not been brought back to the mark.
Mato was a constant threat. Only the gadget-arm of Hicks Bay No.8 Frank Taiapa, forcing the TVC 7 to lose the ball forward, stopped him from making a break down the left touch.
That Taiapa and centre Shaun Murtagh, played solidly in a great win is fitting while TVC centre Tame Anderson — a powerful and exciting player of promise — also gave the hundreds of spectators a glimpse of his ability to run with the ball and counter-attack.
Hicks Bay reinforced their forward strength with Anton King and mighty reserve lock Rikki Waitoa eight minutes after the resumption. Their heft and mobility in general play gave the visitors a sizeable boost.
The big men in both teams never slowed down.
Vigorous TVC scrum-anchor Hirini Delamere and fellow prop Joseph Roberts took every chance they could get to drop the hammer — Roberts hurtling at them as late as the 82nd minute.
That the visitors must weaken or concede seemed to be the only possible outcome, with great pressure and force being brought to bear on the goal-line.
Their ability to absorb that decided the final.
They are worthy champions, whose courage, bond and durability will be remembered for as long as the Rangiora Keelan Memorial Shield is a prize in rugby.
TVC women are looking to go one better than their men in the Ngāti Porou East Coast women’s club rugby final.
The semifinals were held on Saturday, with Hikurangi defeating Waima 34-5 at Kahuitara and TVC outgunning defending champions Waiapu 29-10 at Cape Runaway.
