Cole Baldwin and Roman Tutauha. Co-captaincy has it pitfalls in competitive sport. It was a testament to their 'team first' mantra that they made it work.
Cole Baldwin and Roman Tutauha. Co-captaincy has it pitfalls in competitive sport. It was a testament to their 'team first' mantra that they made it work.
First, let's get the caveat out of the way.
It should be impossible to win the Mitre 10 Heartland Championship's premier prize the Meads Cup for three seasons in a row. Impossible.
In semi-professional and amateur rugby, there are a world of changes which come every 12 months.
Retirements, week day and weekend work commitments, mounting injuries, fair weather imports coming and going, and talented youth using their increased exposure to shift to the bigger provinces all take significant toll on Heartland teams, even those with the greatest depth.
Some provincial squads can form a solid core of players to build a culture and guide them through two winning seasons - Wanganui did this with their back-to-back Meads Cups in 2008-9, as did Mid Canterbury with their 2013-14 Meads titles.
Mid Canterbury had a real opportunity when they hosted Steelform Wanganui in 2015's Meads Cup semifinal to stake their claim as the greatest union in the competition's history if they could defeat them and go on to the final and make an unheard of three-peat.
But coach Jason Caskey's visiting side were vowed and determined on that October 17 afternoon that it would not be that day, or any other.
It so often happens in Heartland. On the day, even the best run into somebody who for 80 minutes can be just a little better.
Cole Baldwin and Roman Tutauha. Co-captaincy has it pitfalls in competitive sport. It was a testament to their 'team first' mantra that they made it work.
Caskey, loyal lieutenant Jason Hamlin and their coaching crew had their greatest reward for two years of toil and development with the finished product that was the 2016 Wanganui squad - the "Heartland Invincibles".
From No1 through to No22 that rugby team was flawless by Heartland standards. Perfect.
Steady veterans, firebrand youth, former and current professionals alike.
They had an unbreakable scrum, dominant lineout, tactical kicking nous, attacking flair and lightning pace to burn.
And so we reached the inevitable hangover of 2017, where it seemed the realities would catch up to the dream.
The legendary captain, Peter Rowe, had deservedly hung up the boots, as had the backline's 'Mr Fix It' Ace Malo, while towering lock Gavin Thornbury was home in Ireland, enforcer prop Tietie Tuimauga was injured and 2016 player of the year Te Rangatira Waitokia had signed a Manawatu contract.
Coupled with this, Poverty Bay and East Coast - 8th and 12th come season's end - had complained that they should not have to play home matches on the same weekend, due to shared sponsorship.
And so Caskey & Co were handed a fait accompli by the NZRFU where they had to head south on consecutive weekends to face the might of the Canterbury teams - unprecedented for the previous year's winner to receive such a tough draw.
Noteworthy that eventual finalist Horowhenua-Kapiti did not have to play Mid or South Canterbury at all.
After missing South Canterbury's late try on defence in September, Tremaine Gilbert responded with an outstanding final few weeks, including this only try against North Otago.
In an eight weekend round robin, there is inevitably a log-jam for spots on the table for second down to tenth - one loss can be the difference between a home playoff or an eight-hour round trip for an away fixture, or even making the playoffs at all.
Rebuilding their lineup and leadership group, Wanganui was mired in these challenge, and mired in mud by a much wetter September-October for games than was seen the previous year.
Even Zeus with his thunderbolts was lining up to make sure the Meads Cup had a change of scenery.
It left Wanganui being caught in a three-way tie for fourth spot, where thanks to non-played West Coast's strong recovery to finish with two wins, the good days with record thrashings of Wairarapa Bush and King Country were enough to carry the bad ones of three narrow losses.
And so to Timaru to face a South Canterbury team on a seven game winning streak, while still without their injured top points scorer Craig Clare and top tryscorer Timoci Seruwalu.
Ethan Robinson, left, climbed through four different representative teams to earn his Wanganui senior debut and played with the assurance of a veteran.
Wanganui were in the same boat Mid Canterbury had been two years before. Was it finally time for the champions to go out on their shield?
It is history now what Wanganui instead accomplished in their last 160 minutes of football.
Everything that Caskey, Hamlin, Rowe and all the great Wanganui leaders before them had instilled in this unit was brought to the fore - they just refused to believe they would lose.
In the game of poker, maybe Wanganui was bluffing with two pair instead of their usual royal flush, but South Canterbury and Horowhenua Kapiti didn't know that, and their mental disintegration at key moments of the big games proved it.
Wanganui needed imports from Auckland because outside backs likes of Cameron Crowley, centre, were struggling with chronic leg injuries. By season's end, Crowley was a matchwinner.
After nearly being down and out in the rain and mud of Levin on October 7, Wanganui forever owns October 28, 2017, under the warm sun on the same ground.
And even then, they were their own harshest critics - Caskey spoke about going away from the gameplan with extra kicking, captain Cole Baldwin wanted to win the game by more than 16 points.
That fire never dies and is why the impossible becomes reality for Wanganui rugby, even with all odds stacked against them.
