Wellington 14 Canterbury 36
There was always going to be some horribly one-sided contests in this year's provincial championship. That's been the biggest flaw with the competition - the gap between the rich and the poor.
Quite how last night's Ranfurly Shield became such a mis-match is not entirely clear. And what a mis-match it was. It wasn't a record - North Harbour lost 52-7 to Waikato in their second defence in 2007 - but it was up there.
The strangest thing was that this wasn't rich versus poor - this was between last year's finalists, the teams pundits pick to go all the way again.
Wellington and Canterbury had most of their All Blacks back and running through the team sheet, a winner was hard to pick.
So how come Canterbury treated Wellington as if they were Counties Manukau? How come it was 26-0 at halftime and Wellington had the glazed look of men who couldn't believe what was happening?
It was men versus boys in the first 40 minutes and the damage was so severe, there was no way Wellington were ever going to recover.
Dan Carter, in his usual unhurried way, passed and bobbed. Captain George Whitelock was prominent with ball in hand, obviously keen to show the All Black captain that he can't take the No 7 shirt for granted.
Brad Thorn, a self-described walking carcass in the closing stages of the Sydney Bledisloe test, had found his second wind. The Canterbury machine whirred along at a fair old tilt and Wellington were sucked under the wheels.
Ryan Crotty was the danger man in midfield making incisive breaks and always stayed on his feet long enough for the pack to get to him.
The penalties flowed thick and fast as a result of Canterbury's dominance and when Whitelock spun through a ruck to touchdown on 20 minutes it was starting to get ugly. Crotty's brilliant break and feed to Tim Bateman on the stroke of half-time put the Cantabs out by 26 points and we could only wonder just how badly Wellington were going to be mauled.
It's one thing to take a pounding - another completely to take such a pounding when you are defending the Ranfurly Shield. Shield challenges not only carry greater significance in the history books, they sit for much longer in the memory.
Last night's game will now become a memory landmark for thousands of fans. The year Wellington were gubbed at home and lost the Shield ... 2009, remember it well. Canterbury were all over them that night.
It will also be remembered as the night Richie McCaw played in his first Shield challenge. A sign indeed of changing times that after nine years in the All Blacks and 10 with the Crusaders, a player of his standing had never actually had a crack at the Log o' Wood.
It was typical of McCaw to nail it on his first attempt. Typical that his presence lifted those around him.
Wellington will do a lot of soul-searching but they have to realise that they struck Canterbury on a special night. The visitors played some exceptionally good football.
Their continuity was spectacular at times and their aggression in the contact was more Super 14 than provincial standard. They kept the error count low and their setpiece was solid, probably more than that.
It would be remiss not to mention their defence as well. Wellington struggled for possession but what little they did get, they were unable to do much with it. Canterbury were patient in the way they didn't rush the outsides even though they knew the ball was going there. They simply let Wellington run laterally and the pounced when they had numbers swarming the isolated ball carrier.
By the final quarter Wellington were shuffling the ball to static players. No one seemed to have any fight left in them and certainly no one had any ideas left on what to do to break Canterbury open until the last 10 minutes.
Then, finally, when it was all too late, Wellington cut loose with Hosea Gear and Ma'a Nonu both scoring tries.
Otago will have the next challenge when they clash with Canterbury in Christchurch on September 12.
Wellington 14 (H. Gear, M. Nonu tries; F. Fili 2 cons) Canterbury 36 (G. Whitelock, T. Bateman, C. Flynn tries; D. Carter 3 cons, 5 pens).
