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Auckland vs Canterbury Rivalry

1:06:36 recording · EN · 3 speakers

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Brief overview

The 1985 Ranfurly Shield match crowned a 1980s Auckland-Canterbury rivalry driven as much by economics as rugby.

  1. Economics fed the rugby rivalryDeregulation, urban flight and dying regional employment made Auckland the enemy long before kickoff.
  2. The 1985 game met its hypeAuckland were 24-0 up at halftime and still only won 28-23 in front of a packed Lancaster Park.
  3. Amateur rugby ran on scarcityTen NPC games a season, no lifting in lineouts, no replacements unless injured, and the referee kept the time.
Executive Summary AI
  • Marking the 50th anniversary of the NPC, the hosts replay their Versus episode on the great Auckland-Canterbury rugby rivalry of the early 80s, with Dylan Cleaver and Jeremy Wells.0:04
  • Cleaver explains that before 1976 provincial rugby was only a set of annual fixtures arranged in backroom deals between union chairmen, so the Ranfurly Shield was the one thing worth winning.7:42
  • The rivalry grew out of 1980s New Zealand: Muldoon froze the economy from about 1975 to 1984, then deregulation, urban flight and Pacific migration made Auckland boom while Christchurch names like Kaiapoi Woollen Mills contracted, so the yuppie-versus-farmer split became John Hart against Grizz Wiley.12:46
  • Canterbury blitzed a confident Auckland 31-9 in the 1983 Shield challenge, Auckland answered with 32-3 at Eden Park in 1984, and the 1985 challenge was billed as the match of the century.26:25
  • Auckland led 24-0 at halftime, Wiley's ball-in-hand speech sparked a Canterbury comeback that fell short at 28-23, and Auckland took the Shield to deny a record 26th defence.38:47
Key Quote
“I think we still actually had a black and white TV in those days, so I would have gone up to my uncles or my friends to watch it.”
— Jeremy Wells33:37
Key Quote
“We think South Africans are hard, but Grizz was the toughest man I ever met.”
— Dylan Cleaver42:08
Key Quote
“Grizz walked up and punched him.”
— Dylan Cleaver42:43