W-B has won just six of 24 first class matches in the River City since the merger of the Masterton and Pahiatua-based unions in 1971, but none of them were for the Steel Cup.
The unions, however, have clashed twice locally in vital Heartland Meads Cup fixtures with the Stags winning the inaugural final 16-14 in 2006 and the Butcher Boys 58-26 10 years later in a semifinal.
Saturday brings together the second and fourth ranked 2019 Heartland teams with W-B winning six of nine games, eventually being pipped by just two points — 27-25 — in a tight semifinal at Oamaru by North Otago who went on to beat Wanganui 33-19 a week later in the Meads Cup final on the same field.
Wairarapa was unbeaten on the home artificial grass surface, beating Wanganui 28-18, King Country 37-31, Poverty Bay 32-31 and Horowhenua-Kapiti 25-20 and winning away against Buller 20-17 and Mid Canterbury 31-10.
Qualifying losses were away to North Otago (11-25) and Thames Valley (23-29).
The Stags scored 236 points (31 tries) and conceded 208 (28) for a nine game average winning score of 26-23.
By comparison Wanganui won six of 10 games, scoring 333 pts (49 tries) and 232 (26) against — an average score of 33-23.
Most capped W-B players this campaign are fullback Inia Kata (80 games at the end of 2019) and prop Sam Gammie (32).
Goal-kicking first five Tipene Haira, who kicked 11 points in last year's Cup victory, the first Cup success against Wanganui since winning 29-18 at Carterton in 1972, is in the 2020 squad.
He is one of seven players from last year's winning side returning while 10 of the beaten Wanganui team are back again.
The Stags' four NZ Heartland reps last year — winger Tristan Flutey, utility back Tim Priest, loose forward James Goodger and lock Lachlan McFadzean — are missing this season.
After losing the Sir Colin Meads Memorial Log 16-11 to King Country in the wind at Taumarunui last weekend the Butcher Boys will need a vastly improved effort on Saturday against the Stags who have beaten King Country 22-18, Poverty Bay 34-22 and Horowhenua-Kapiti twice (33-8 in a warm-up game and 47-24 in a Steel Cup fixture last weekend).
Although there is ample attacking potential in the team Wanganui has really struggled to hold vital passes in windy conditions over the past two weekends.
The one try at Taumarunui is the least by the Butcher Boys in first class outings, apart from Ranfurly Shield challenges, in four years and the lowest score against the Rams since losing 10-54 at Taupo in 1992.
Cup link to All Black captain
The Bruce Steel Memorial Cup, which is at stake when Wanganui plays Wairarapa-Bush at Cooks Gardens on Saturday, has a link to former All Black captain Jack Steel.
The late Jack "Frosty" Steel, a class winger who represented West Coast and Canterbury, wore the All Black jersey 38 times between 1920 and 1925, including six tests, and was also a NZ skipper.
He is the uncle of Bruce McIntosh Steel after whom the Memorial Cup is named.
The trophy was presented by Carterton publican William Harold Steel (younger brother of Jack) in memory of his 29-year-old son Bruce who died of cancer in 1964.
Although he did not reach the lofty heights of his uncle, who died in 1941 when his car struck a concrete bridge south of Greymouth, Bruce Steel, who was a farm labourer in Wairarapa and Manawatu, was a speedy winger who played senior rugby for Oroua, Masterton and his eventual home township of Featherston.
Wairarapa beat Horowhenua 20-12 in the inaugural cup game at Masterton in 1965, defended it 31-5 at home and then the trophy changed hands for the first time later that year with Manawatu beating Wairarapa 20-13 in Palmerston North.
That was the first of 21 times the cup has switched unions in 133 trophy fixtures during the past 55 years.
Manawatu has won 103 of 110 cup games, finally handing it over to Heartland champions Wanganui in 2012 despite winning the home game 40-7.
It was felt that with Manawatu playing in the first division, and the other Steel Cup unions in Heartland rugby, it was fairer for the cup to be at stake amongst teams of more equal standing.
Manawatu, however, has an agreement to play for the trophy should the union lose its higher grade status.
Wanganui has won 27 cup fixtures and lost 38 (34 of them to Manawatu and twice each to Horowhenua-Kapiti and Wairarapa-Bush.
The only draw was 15-all between trophy holders Manawatu and Wanganui at Spriggens Park in 1990, Guy Lennox kicking five penalties for Wanganui.
The Butcher Boys have recorded the highest cup score (79-7 v Wairarapa-Bush at Cooks Gardens in 2017) followed by Manawatu 75-0 v Horowhenua in 1982, Wanganui 75-13 in 1995 and Horowhenua 70-3 in 1992 — all in Palmerston North.
Wanganui joined Wairarapa, Horowhenua, Manawatu and Bush in the Steel Cup competition 1966.
Now only three unions contest the trophy series but there has been talk that King Country could be invited to participate.
There has been a change to the format for this Covid-19 affected season with the trophy being played on a round-robin system.
With both Wanganui and Wairarapa-Bush having beaten Horowhenua-Kapiti the winners at Cooks Gardens on Saturday will go down as the 2020 trophy holders.
If Wanganui wins it will be the eighth time the union has dethroned a holder of the Cup.
The following are the change of Cup fixtures —
1965 — Wairarapa 20, Horowhenua 12, Masterton (First game).
Manawatu 20, Wairarapa 13, PN.
1970 — Wanganui 3, Manawatu 0, PN.
1971 — Manawatu 20, Wanganui 18, Spriggens Park.
Wairarapa-Bush 21, Manawatu 11, PN.
1972 — Manawatu 26, Wair-Bush 12, Masterton.
1976 — Wanganui 15, Manawatu 14, Spriggens Park.
1977 — Manawatu 26, Wanganui 9, PN (also Ranfurly Shield).
1986 — Wanganui 16, Manawatu 9, Spriggens Park.
1987 — Manawatu 22, Wanganui 9, PN.
1993 — Horowhenua 26, Manawatu 3, Levin
Wanganui 39, Horowhenua 17, Levin.
1994 — Manawatu 46, Wanganui 15, Cooks Gardens.
2000 — Wair-Bush 19, Manawatu 14, Masterton.
2001 — Wanganui 33, Wair-Bush 26, Cooks Gardens.
Manawatu 19, Wanganui 15, Cooks Gardens.
2012 — Manawatu 40, Wanganui 7, PN (Handover of Cup).
2014 — Horo-Kapiti 34, Wanganui 23, Cooks Gardens.
2015 — Wanganui 39, Horo-Kapiti 34, Levin.
2017- Horo-Kapiti 15, Wanganui 8, Levin.
2018 — Wanganui 57, Horo-Kapiti 27, Cooks Gardens.
2019 — Wair-Bush 28, Wanganui 18, Masterton.
Live-wire Hooker Dies
John Brian (JB) Howarth, who died last week at the age of 83, was both a Wanganui representative front row forward and a union selector-coach.
The jovial electrical contractor played 24 times for the Butcher Boys between 1959 and 1967 and served on the Wanganui selection-coaching panel with Ken George and Eric Weir in 1985.
JB, who played for and also coached Wanganui HSOB and was a regular Metropolitan sub-union representative, made his Wanganui first-class debut in an 11-14 loss to Manawatu at Spriggens Park in 1959 but later that season scored a try in a 34-9 away win over Golden Bay Motueka.
He played only three rep games in 1959 and did not don the Wanganui colours again until coming on as a replacement in a heavy 53-3 defeat at the hands of Canterbury on Lancaster Park in 1965.
In 1966 and 1967 JB became a regular first choice hooker by the selection trio of Ron Crombie, Brian Murphy and Tony Coleman, appearing in all 10 games but there was only a single win — 11-6 over Taranaki in Hawera.
A year later, in his final campaign with Wanganui, under Murphy, Doug Kitto and Bill Carroll, JB played in 10 of 12 matches including all four victories — 6-3 on Queen's Birthday Monday v Taranaki, 11-3 v Bush, 20-3 v Southland and 31-6 v Horowhenua, all at home on Spriggens Park.
He suffered a few injuries during his career including a broken jaw in a skirmish with fellow rep Jack Cooney in a Northern v Metro match in Taihape.
A highlight of his rep selector-coach season in 1985, when Wanganui played a massive 17 fixtures, was beating four touring South Island unions — South Canterbury 23-9, North Otago 23-6, West Coast 22-6 and Buller 19-10 — plus Mid Canterbury 12-9 at Ashburton and Horowhenua 23-9 in Levin.
John, who owned his own electrical firm in Wanganui, was a national president and life member in the trade.
Golf and fishing were high on his recreation agenda.
