Hewson reflects on Ranfurly Shield win

?Above: Wellington's five All Blacks, from left to right Stu Wilson, Allan Hewson, Murray Mexted, Jamie Salmon and Bernie Fraser, emerge on to the tarmac with the Ranfurly Shield after their 22-4 win over Waikato. Photo courtesy of the Evening Post, 1 October 1981.

In 1981 Wellington famously did the double by winning the Ranfurly Shield and the National Provincial Championship (ITM Cup) in the same season and fullback Allan Hewson was a key member of that side.

One of the then famous five All Blacks in that successful 1981 Wellington Lions team, alongside Murray Mexted, Jamie Salmon and the wing duo of Stu Wilson and Bernie Fraser, Hewson watched most of it unfold from fullback.

Hewson says that season and in particular that Ranfurly Shield victory over Waikato on 30 September 1981 in Hamilton was a highlight of his career.

"Winning the Ranfurly Shield that year was special. Going up to Hamilton and taking it off them and bringing it down to Wellington for the summer was a proud achievement for everyone involved," he says.

"The build-up to that match was huge and was a like a Test match. Then after winning it, the celebrations went on for about a week."

Wellington won the Ranfurly Shield off Waikato in a midweek match at Hamilton's Rugby Park in front of 30,000 parochial Mooloo fans. Hewson kicked a penalty and two conversions in the 22-4 win, which at the time was the second highest winning Ranfurly Shield margin of victory by a successful challenging team. To Waikato fans, the match was shrouded in controversy as their prop Paul Koteka was ordered from the field late in the first half, thus reducing the defenders to 14 men. But at this stage, the Lions' pack was already dominant and Wellington was ahead 12-0. They scored another try to be 18-0 at halftime and the game was in the bag.

The victory was Wellington's ninth straight win in the 1981 NPC and was the icing on the cake after they had already sealed the title with their 31-6 win the week before against Canterbury. The Lions returned to Athletic Park to host Counties on the Saturday and lost 9-15, but Hewson says this didn't matter.

"After winning the Shield on Wednesday, we then had to try and build ourselves up for the final game of the season against Counties. With nothing riding on that game this match was just a brief interlude in the celebrations."

"Overall, that was a great season for us. We won everything that was going and had a great time doing it."

He adds that playing with Bernie Fraser and Stu Wilson was fun. "They were both very good football players with different personalities as players. But we were all able to complement each other on the field together and we all worked pretty well together. We also played in a strong team and played with good players, which gave us the opportunities to play the way we did."

Barely two weeks before, on 12 September, Hewson had kicked the match and series winning last-gasp penalty for the All Blacks to beat South Africa in the infamous flour bomb Test at Eden Park. That was part of a 19-Test All Black career that saw him score 201 international points and score a then world record 26 points against the Wallabies at Eden Park in 1982. He also scored two tries against Scotland in just his second Test in 1981 and up until that stage just five tries had ever been scored from fullback for New Zealand in Tests.

In 1981, Hewson was in his third season with the All Blacks and fifth with Wellington, who were coached right up to his last full year in 1985 by his Petone club coach Ian Upston. 1981 was also his second NPC triumph with Wellington after playing at centre in Wellington's first title winning season in 1978.

"I started out on the wing for Wellington, and then went to centre and then fullback. I played at centre for Wellington in 1978 and Brian Cederwall [who played 102 games for Wellington between 1973-83] was fullback. Then I moved to fullback in 1979 and played there until moving in to first five-eighth at the end of my career. I've played in most positions in the backline except for halfback!"

At the other end of his career, injury forced Hewson to retire and he thus missed out on winning a third NPC title with the Wellington Lions when the Earle Kirton-coached side triumphed in 1986.

"I played in all the early fixtures in 1986. I was at fullback and John Gallagher was centre. But I had a crook Achilles tendon so I had to retire before the NPC started later in the year."

Hewson had come into the Wellington team in 1977 and was also a gifted cricketer, successfully juggling both sports. In the 1978/79 summer the wicket-keeper batsman represented Wellington in Plunket Shield cricket and has eight first-class cricket matches to his name.

But the burgeoning rugby career soon took over. "When I first got picked for the All Blacks at the end of 1979 was when I stopped playing representative cricket. I had represented Wellington in cricket the previous summer but making the All Blacks tour to England, Scotland and Italy and also injuring my back on that tour meant hanging up my keeping gloves and it was more rugby after that."

Wellington rugby's third most capped back, Hewson eventually hung up his boots having played 108 games for the Lions and scored a record 893 points.

Until recently, Hewson was still directly involved with Petone Rugby, and involved with the club's Ken Gray Academy. He remains heavily involved with the Petone-Eastbourne Cricket Club.