Who said Wairarapa-Bush wouldn't get their hands on the Ranfurly Shield this rugby season?
New Zealand's most famous sporting trophy was the centre of attention at a training session on Sunday but you can bet the smiles will be a lot wider if they pull off a miracle win over Wellington when they actually challenge for the "log o' wood" on Thursday, July 2.
"This was just a practice run, just wait and see what happens when it's the real thing," coach Kelvin Tantrum quipped.
"You won't get them standing still long enough for any photo shoot then!"
Tantrum knows Wairarapa-Bush will start the rankest of rank outsiders to beat a Wellington side likely to contain a fair muster of players with Super 14 experience but he says that isn't dimming their enthusiasm one iota.
"It's every provincial players dream to play in a Shield game, and to have that opportunity in your own backyard makes it even bigger," he said. "Everybody, management, players, supporters, should be excited about it. It's huge for rugby here, absolutely huge."
Tantrum said Wairarapa-Bush would go into the Shield match with a game plan aimed at making them as competitive as possible.
"We're not getting all stressed out about how strong they are going to be, we just intend to work out the best game plan for us and do our best to implement it," he said.
"Look, we know we're on a hiding to nothing but we're not going out there to lie down and let them walk all over us, we want to be as competitive as we can possibly be."
Wairarapa-Bush have challenged seven times for the Ranfurly Shield since the two unions amalgamated in 1971 and only once, in 1977, have they come close to victory.
They lost by just 12-6 to holders Manawatu then.
Their other defeats were to Marlborough in 1973 (0-36), to Canterbury in 1982 (6-51), to Canterbury again in 1984 (6-24), to Auckland in 1986 (7-50), to Waikato in 1999 (6-74) and to Canterbury for a third time in 2006 (10-96).
Wairarapa did have better luck on their own, however, successfully challenging for the Shield on three occasions, 1927, 1928 and 1950.
Look ... we've got the Shield!
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