NRL TEAMS - 2024 Round 7
3 days ago | LeagueUnlimited Media
The Log O? Wood
Ahh, Rugby Union. A guaranteed cure for insomnia, neatly wrapped up in a confusing package of scrums, mauls and whistles.
Frankly it bores me to tears. I?d much rather (and often have!) switch over to NRL Super Saturday instead of watching an ?absorbing? All Blacks encounter. And this isn?t a pro-League anti-Union stance ? Union has never excited me, even before I knew that League existed.
But a couple of months ago, something strange happened ?
Thanks to a shock defeat of Canterbury at Jade Stadium, the North Harbour Rugby Union (my home province!) managed to astound everyone by picking up the Ranfurly Shield. And it was enough to make this anti-Union campaigner sit up and take notice.
The Ranfurly Shield has been around in New Zealand rugby circles since 1901, when the Earl of Ranfurly presented it to the NZRFU with no stipulation as to what competition it would be played for. It was decided the shield would be contested between provincial unions on a challenge basis, and it still happens to this day ? the holder of the shield puts it on the line at every one of their regular season home games, excluding finals.
And even though it?s strictly a Rugby Union thing, there?s still something deeply magical about the Log o? Wood. Provincial Rugby Unions can be literally reborn after winning the Shield, and start enjoying prolific outbursts of parochialism and rapid surges in crowd numbers. The North Harbour Union have openly admitted that the shield win provided a huge injection of enthusiasm into what had been a very lackluster season.
So here?s my obvious suggestion ? can the NRL pinch this idea? Let?s take a look at how it might work:
The Shield
The obvious choice would have to be the Royal Agricultural Society (RAS) Shield, the original award for supremacy in the 1908 NSWRL competition. While it has space for 24 recorded winners, it only lasted six seasons before being claimed by the Eastern Suburbs Roosters as reward for winning three consecutive Premierships. The bitterness and court battles over ownership of the Shield in recent years have been resolved, and the Shield now has a home in the National Museum at Canberra.