Wairarapa-Bush secure Ranfurly Shield challenge

Hawke's Bay will play Wairarapa-Bush in the first of three non-championship Ranfurly Shield matches next year, evoking a century-and-a-half of interprovincial rugby tradition.

The match is scheduled for July 10, with further non-championship defences scheduled for July 17 against Horowhenua-Kapiti and July 24 against Heartland champions Mid-Canterbury.

All were to be Friday night matches at McLean Park, Napier, but Hawke's Bay Rugby Union CEO Mike Bishop said the Horowhenua-Kapiti match could be played earlier to avoid a clash with a Friday night All Blacks test.

Hawke's Bay first played Wairarapa in 1890, and Bush in 1904.

Wairarapa became the regular Queen's Birthday weekend opponent and had two challenges in the Bay's 1966-69 Ranfurly Shield era - and Bush one. Next year's match will be a day after the 88th anniversary of Hawke's Bay beating Wairarapa in the famed Battle of Solway challenge in Masterton in 1927. Hawke's Bay played an ineligible player, and it became the only Ranfurly Shield result reversed on appeal.

With a merger in 1971, Wairarapa-Bush maintained the June holiday-weekend rivalry, featuring in the Bay's 1984 centennial celebrations. The Magpies' last match against Wairarapa-Bush was a Queen's Birthday match in 2003, won by Hawke's Bay 37-15 in Napier.

The last match against Mid-Canterbury was a second division competition match later that year, the Magpies winning 99-8 at McLean Park three weeks before being hammered 66-12 by Northland in the final. The Magpies haven't played Horowhenua since a 67-22 Division 2 win in Levin in 1994.

In an indication Hawke's Bay would have liked to capitalise more on the nostalgia, Mr Bishop said: "In an ideal world, we would have played the Wairarapa-Bush game around Queen's Birthday weekend."

The defences offer Hawke's Bay club players the chance of Ranfurly Shield exposure, but with Super 15 playoffs scheduled to start on July 3, the Bay's record 16 fully-professional players are expected to become available in increasing numbers as their teams are eliminated and they return to Hawke's Bay.

Mr Bishop said: "We know that each of the Heartland opposition will be difficult opponents."

The full programme, including proposed defences against ITM Cup sides, is not expected to be known until the release of the competition draw in January-February.

Hawke's Bay won the shield in a challenge against Counties Manukau on August 30, and staved-off four challengers at McLean Park for the rest of the season, culminating in a shield-saving a 20-20 draw against Southland on October 1.