Paul Cooke takes a trip down memory lane at his Flaxmere home in Hastings. Photo / Glenn Taylor
He picks up the glossy 1994 match-day rugby programme, his face threatening to break into a feeble smile but his eyes failing to disguise a haunting affliction of failed Ranfurly Shield challenges of yesteryear.
Six challenges - four for his beloved Otago and two for the Hawke's Bay Magpies - but no cigar for Paul Cooke as the slippery Log o' Wood agonisingly failed to find traction with his fingers.
"I've seen it so many times, running past it [shield] a few times on the paddock but running back into the shed and not taking it with me," says the 46-year-old Progressive Meat boner, of Hastings, who belonged to an electrifying Otago backline that was as incisive as his butcher's knife.
"I would have liked to have kicked it [the shield] a few times," says the man known in Otago rugby circles as "Cookie".
No doubt the Blue and Golds were "gutted" after having played so well against Canterbury in the 2.30pm kick off that Saturday, October 1, 1994, at the now defunct Lancaster Park, Christchurch.
"We put everything into it but it was one of those games where we didn't go back with the shield," he laments, as an Andrew Mehrtens' penalty kick in the dying seconds robbed Otago of glory (22-20).
"It still hurts today," Cooke says, revealing beating Canterbury in the NPC semifinals at the defunct Carisbrook (The House of Pain at the foot of The Glen, a steep valley,) that season did little to appease the demons.
Conversely last Friday night's 26-19 victory over Waikato, in Hamilton, though, brings him a latent sense of joy and satisfaction.
"They have finally done it after 56 years so good on them. I take my hat off to them," he says, his eyes beaming at the thought of a Razorbacks outfit oozing with confidence and defending stoically in the last 30 minutes.
"They wanted the shield more and went out and won it - simple as that."
At 4.35pm this Sunday, his heart will be with Otago, a testimony to a man whose career sprouted in the Bay with 50 matches for the Magpies before flourishing to 107 more in the Deep South.
Make an incision on his skin and, he's adamant, you'll find blue blood coursing through his veins.
"I started here but it ended in Otago where I played with some great players and they looked after me very well so I call Otago my home.
"I'm a Southern man through and through," Cooke declares, adding he didn't live there because it's too cold in winter.
"I played with some good Hawke's Bay players, too, but Blue and Gold runs through my veins."
Cooke represented Otago for sevens seasons (1990-96) as a left winger.
With the late Gordon Hunter at the helm as coach in 1994, the David Latta-captained side had a shadow All Black look and feel about them although Cooke recalls the massive tight five from Auckland didn't make life easy.
The Otago backline included ex-ABs such as John Timu (fullback), Jeff Wilson (right wing), Marc Ellis (centre), John Leslie (second five-eighths, not an AB) Stephen Bachop (first five-eighth) and Hawke's Bay's Stu Forster (halfback).
With Leslie going on to become Scotland captain, a grinning Cooke has no hesitation in declaring himself "the black sheep in the back line" for not becoming an All Black although he was a Maori All Black from 1991-1996, after his first trials in 1987 with the Bay.
The forwards were the envy of many provinces, too, although he emphasises they were "little but they were gutsy for our young tight five".
No8 Arran Pene, Highlanders coach Jamie Joseph (flanker), Josh Kronfeld (flanker), Andrew Rush (lock), Justin Cullen (lock), Nick Moore (prop), captain David Latta (hooker) and ex-Wallaby Rob Lawton (prop) started while a young Bay-born Taine Randell, who went on to become an AB captain, was on the bench.
Pene, Joseph and Kronfeld are also former Men in Black.
Otago coach Tony Brown, a second five-eighth in the Otago Colts squad in 1994 and Phil Young, the incumbent Otago assistant coach, was Brown's Colts coach.
In 2011, Cooke caught up with some of his old teammates during a reunion at the opening of the new Forsyth Barr Stadium for the World Cup.
Cooke also played in the challenges against Waikato and Auckland as well as the Magpies challenge against the Aucklanders at Eden Park in 1986.
In his other Magpie challenge in 1989, Auckland had the audacity to bring it to McLean Park before "thrashing us".
"The shield was everything in those days and it's taken a step back, lately, to professional rugby," he says, pointing out the sparse crowds evident on TV.
This Sunday, though, he reckons, the bubble-like covered stadium will be packed with the Otago Rugby Union anticipating a crowd of about 20,000.
He doesn't think the Magpies can crow about any disadvantages at the Dunedin venue which copped some criticism during the 2011 Rugby World Cup.
"You can't complain about the weather or the wind or anything like that.
"In the World Cup they said kickers had problems but I'm not one so I don't know what it could possibly be."
The secret to success in his heyday was simply boys "playing for each other".
"But off the field we still gave each other a hard time, even when we won a game, about missing a tackle here and there."
It did help having two great coaches in Hunter and ex-AB coach Laurie Mains.
Cooke describes Hunter as "a great true-blue Otago man and all man to his players".
"Very rarely were you dropped after two games. You may have one bad game and he gave you another game to redeem yourself," he says, revealing Hunter selected quality stock and had no qualms about releasing anyone who didn't measure up.
Predecessor Mains was also a hard man.
"You were either on his side or against him. They had two different styles of coaching but players respected them," Cooke says, emphasising in those days they were single units compared with myriad coaches and technical advisers in the contemporary era.
"It was virtually one voice, one direction."
He harbours no regrets for not cashing in on a slice of rugby heaven as players carve careers in commentary boxes or as coaches.
"I was too quiet for that kind of stuff. I was the shy guy," he says, labelling Ellis the wit, Kronfeld "was just Josh", Joseph's the coach and "Goldie (Wilson) has the gift of the gab".
In his career, he made "3-4 tackles" but today wingers do that many in one game and are bigger. He recalls the likes of Jonah Lomu, Joeli Vidiri and Va'aiga Tuigamala causing him untold strife, considering he was only 91kg at his peak.
"I marked some big players but today they are much bigger," he says, singling out hybrid blokes such as Julian Savea, Hosea Gear and Rene Ranger.
In 1993 he had had a good feel about getting an ABs call up but "it's disappointing and life goes on".
Tuigamala kept him out and so did Timu and Wilson. When the Samoan retired, Tongan Lomu made it hard for him.
"But I've had a great career with over 100 games for Otago and over 50 for Hawke's Bay," he says, relishing his sojourn to France and Wales before ending the overseas stint as well as his playing career in Italy when he required knee-reconstruction surgery at the age of 33.
He wishes Otago all the best on Sunday against a "very good" Magpies who are strong on paper and were unlucky to lose to the Bay of Plenty Steamers in Tauranga last Sunday.
"If Otago take it to them it'll be a great game."
Single these days, the jovial grandfather reveals his youngest child, son Jordasche Hapi, 15, is attending Hastings Boys' High School and rugby isn't his forte.
"He's an X-Box player," he says, accepting it isn't easy for youngsters, including grandson Kain, 2, to follow in the footsteps of their grandfather.
Kain is the child of Magpie squad member Bronson Neera who is the partner of Cooke's daughter, Paije Hapi, 22.
Eldest child, daughter Kaaran Hapi, 27, lives in Hastings, while Cliche Henry, 25, of Hastings, on Tuesday gave birth in Wellington Hospital to triplet daughters.
They are Aveigh Karonatia Henry, Keeliya Hinekirunga Henry and Denaea Mellisant Henry.
"My daughter reckons they are all the same age because they came out at the same time via caesarean [section]," a proud Cooke says of Cliche who will remain in the capital city until the trio recuperating in an incubator are spritely enough to leave for their Bay home.