There was steely determination in the eyes of the 22 Dannevirke players in the 2018 Scanpower Ross Shield team at their capping ceremony last Thursday night ahead of the start of the tournament in Waipukurau next Tuesday.
The Ross Shield, the oldest rugby tournament in New Zealand, began in 1902 and a Dannevirke team has been part of the competition since its inception.
"Ross Shield is a religion, with family after family and generation after generation playing. It's in the blood of our rugby fanatics," Craig Boyden, the MC at the capping ceremony, said.
And while Dannevirke hasn't won the tournament since 1987, Quinny Olsen, chairman of the Dannevirke JAB Rugby, said this year's team is as good as he'd ever seen.
Simon Prouting, one of three coaches, along with Matt Augustine and Aaron Satchwell, said the team has had an impressive lead up to next week's tournament.