Wellington 27
Auckland 0
KEY POINTS:
Having waved farewell to the Ranfurly Shield on Saturday night, Auckland's national championship campaign now boils down to a pair of Blues brothers battles.
Matches against North Harbour and Northland in the final two rounds will determine whether the defending champions avoid the further ignominy of not even
qualifying for the playoffs.
That modest goal, and the hope of making a splash in the sudden-death phase with the help of their returning All Blacks, is all Shane Howarth's men have left after being ground into the Eden Park turf by a vastly superior Wellington team.
In his post-match speech, Lions captain Piri Weepu told Ben Atiga and his players to keep their heads up. "I hope you fullas make the quarters."
Those words rather starkly underlined Auckland's rapid transition from peerless champions to mid-table battlers.
Weepu's attempt at consolation was genuine, but it also betrayed Wellington's utter lack of fear for their vanquished opponent.
If Auckland do sneak into the playoffs, they could well face a Wellington team that should wrap up top seeding with a victory over Tasman in a homecoming party first Shield defence in the capital on Saturday night.
A sudden-death date with Auckland is something no team used to wish for, but Wellington appear so far ahead of the rest of the competition they couldn't care less.
The Lions machine was far from its purring best on Saturday night.
They dropped simple passes, blew golden opportunities and Weepu kicked just one of five goals.
But they still romped to a convincing victory that never looked in doubt after they repelled an early Auckland assault and hit back with a try to impressive lock Jeremy Thrush.
Auckland's best hope of beating Wellington was to start fast and plant the seeds of doubt in the minds of a team burdened by 10 successive failed challenges in the past 26 years.
"We had three or four clear opportunities and we didn't score," coach Howarth said. "That first 10 minutes killed us, it really did kill us.
"We just needed to get across the line. It might not have meant a different outcome but it certainly would have boosted our boys.
"They came back and scored two pretty quick tries. The boys didn't stop believing but it was always a daunting task from there."
Sometime All Blacks props Neemia Tialata and John Schwalger laid the foundation for the Lions' victory.
An Auckland scrum left underpowered by the early exit of Paea Fa'anunu was little more than a plaything in the jaws of the Wellington eight.
Both sides butchered more opportunities in what was hardly a classic encounter. Wellington-bound winger David Smith provided the odd glimpse of hope for Auckland but the challengers always looked to have the greater strikepower and Hosea Gear eventually clapped on the afterburners to claim his 10th of the season and double the lead just before halftime.
Wellington have blown their share of such leads before but coach Jamie Joseph had invested plenty of effort in ensuring that wouldn't happen again.
"We talked about Wellington's challenges in recent years and every single one of them was a case of getting a lead and then stopping attacking," Joseph said.
"So our focus was to attack and to attack for the whole 90 minutes."
That approach brought a neat blindside try to hooker Danes Coles and a close-range try to lock Ross Filipo that killed off Auckland well before the end. But Wellington saved their best for last.
Their fifth try, to replacement No 8 Thomas Waldrom, was a 90m counter-attacking special that showcased the opportunism, clever changes of angles and support play that have set them above the rest this season.
After such a long wait for the Shield's return to the capital, the ease of Wellington's victory was a touch anticlimactic.
But that was lost on thousands of Wellington fans who stayed for the victory ceremony, and born-and-bred Wellingtonian Filipo, who rated the achievement above winning a Super 14 title with the Crusaders.
"I'm pretty blown away," Filipo said.
"I've had two cracks at it prior to this and come up short. So I'm really proud to be a part of this team.
"There is so much history. I grew up watching Ranfurly Shield challenges. This is awesome. It's like winning a grand final but better."
