Still no Shield decision on 'unregistered' player

1.00pm

Three days out from Bay of Plenty's first Ranfurly Shield defence, no decision has been made over their alleged fielding of an unregistered player.

The New Zealand Rugby Union was expected to announce its finding today after an inquiry into the appearance of loose forward Colin Bourke, who came off the bench for Bay of Plenty when they won the shield 33-28 off Auckland last weekend.

While the legal shield wrangling has gone on in Wellington, Bay of Plenty players Glen Jackson and Grant McQuoid can see the irony in their possible first defence against Waikato.

Both played their part as young players in previous Waikato shield defences four years ago.

Now they have won the shield for Bay of Plenty, who had never held it before and on Sunday defend it against their old team at Mt Maunganui's Blue Chip Stadium.

Jackson, back with the Bay of Plenty team he started with as a youngster before making the Waikato side as a university student, is the key playmaker and goalkicker at first five-eighth and is having his swansong season before heading to England.

"I didn't actually win (the shield) with Waikato," he said.

"I was on the bench and never got on so that was a big plus for me to actually win it (on Sunday) when it is possibly my last season in New Zealand.

"It was one of those games where everything went right for me."

Now he can't wait to defend the shield in a game he was always looking forward to even before the shield came along.

Jackson said from Tauranga that the atmosphere on Sunday would be electric.

"The shield has changed this place. In Hamilton as a rugby player you were quite often recognised but here you never were.

"Now it's feeling like it did in Waikato so that makes it good for this region and hopefully we can hang on to it for a while."

McQuoid, born and bred in Waikato but dogged by injuries and lack of starting opportunities, also headed to the Bay of Plenty a couple of seasons ago and has now carved a niche at second five-eighth.

"It's gone full circle I suppose but it's a circle I'm happy to be part of," McQuoid said.

He is also adamant this time around the shield has much more meaning for him.

"This time to be honest I won it as part of a team and last time I defended it a few times, so this is a lot more special because we put all that work in to get it and when you're in the starting line up you feel like you're an important part and something special."

Last Sunday's historic win over Auckland is still something of a blur for him.

"It's hard to describe how I felt when the final whistle went. I wasn't getting excited until the final whistle went because of the history Bay of Plenty have had but once it went I couldn't hold back."

Jackson said the excitement in the Bay of Plenty community over the shield victory and the demand to see the players with the trophy had been a distraction this week but a necessary one and he was confident they would cope with it.

"We could easily have shut up shop and said you know we're concentrating on this week but that's not the way that the shield's done so we've had to do this hard work.

"But when we're at training (coach) Vern (Cotter) has made sure that we've switched on and it's just another game. We've got to look at it that way.

"I know through my experience with Waikato that it's a great feeling defending it so it should be a good feeling on Sunday."

- NZPA

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