KEY POINTS:
The Auckland Rugby Union, New Zealand's most successful both in terms of championship honours and in production of All Blacks, this weekend celebrates its 125th anniversary.
And as a guest in those celebrations Auckland could not have chosen more appropriately than its Wellington counterpart, whose representative side has been flying high this year and who will meet Auckland tonight in a clash for the Ranfurly Shield.
Wellington's form this season have been so outstanding, an epic contest is assured tonight if Auckland are to remain the shield holders. And that's just one of the extra dimensions Wellington bring to Auckland's milestone.
Recently, Canterbury have become Auckland rugby's arch-rivals. In times past there has been considerable feeling in clashes the Blue and Whites have had in matches against their neighbours, such as Waikato, Northland and latterly, because they represent a true local derby, North Harbour.
But, even if Auckland's first provincial game in 1883 was against Canterbury, their chief foes, especially for the first 50 years or so, were always Wellington sides. There were many reasons for a deep-seated antagonism between the two cities, besides sport.
Until 1865, Auckland had been New Zealand's capital and even today it's possible to find many Aucklanders convinced a mistake was made all those years ago in shifting the administration of the nation to Wellington.
Aucklanders like to think of themselves as innovative entrepreneurs with their many initiatives stifled by Wellington civil service bureaucracy. That's probably as true of rugby as it is of business.
And it probably explains why, especially in rugby games before the turn of the 20th century, there was much tension. In the first official game between the unions arguments about the result raged for many weeks afterwards. Auckland were so aggrieved over the awarding of a controversial converted try to Wellington, the captain, Thomas Henderson, threatened to take his players from the field.
That score gave Wellington a 4-2 win, but such was Auckland's anger that in many official records the game was listed as having been undecided. One of the line umpires had been one AH Cotter, who was heavily involved with the Auckland team as a selector and committee chairman.
When the teams met again in 1886, he was again a line umpire and after Wellington had lost 4-2 their players made their resentment of alleged bias by Cotter plain. An effigy of Cotter was hanged in Wellington, for which an angered Auckland union demanded an apology.
In subsequent Auckland-Wellington rugby relationships, arguments were probably more off-field than on, though many of these did not involve the Wellington union as such. But Wellington, as it is now, was also the headquarters for the New Zealand union and over the years, within the game, some of its chief opposition has come from Auckland.
Whether on playing rules (a vexed issue for more than 100 years) All Black selections, coaching appointments, banning of players (as in the Ron Rangi case of 1967) even contacts with South Africa and a need for greater commercialism, Auckland and the Wellington-based NZRU, have often been at odds. When you consider that Auckland has always abounded in strong-minded, independent and progressive individuals _ men such as Tom Pearce, Ron Don, Fred Allen, John Hart and Andy Haden _ such ructions have probably been inevitable. And, for all the heat sometimes generated, it has been a rivalry which, overall, has been to New Zealand rugby's benefit.
