One of the great battles of Hawke's Bay's 1966-67 Ranfurly Shield was being recalled last night as New Zealand and the rugby world prepared to farewell All Blacks great Sir Colin "Pinetree" Meads, who died yesterday, aged 81.
The match was Meads' King Country challenge against the Magpies at McLean Park, Napier, on August 9, 1969, just a few weeks before the end of one of the longest tenures in the history of the famed Log o' Wood.
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It was also a time when New Zealand rugby out was being buoyed by what was going out in the provinces, most notably with a trio of the tough forward pack which helped the All Blacks go unbeaten for almost five years from a loss to South Africa in Christchurch in 1965 to the first test on the All Blacks' 1970 tour of South Africa.
There was Meads, captain and Wairarapa farmer Brian Lochore, and Hawke's Bay flanker Kel Tremain, who died in 1992, aged just 54.