Rich history between Wellington and Southland

 The Wellington Lions and Southland Stags teams go into Saturday’s clash having met 27 times in ITM Cup rugby with Wellington having now won 21, Southland five and one draw. 

Overall, they have played each other 94 times since 1896 in first-class matches, Wellington having won 64, Southland 23 and with seven draws.

By the time they met in the ITM Cup for the first time in 1976, the two unions had been fighting it out since before the turn of last century. The Lions prevailed 11-0 when they first met in Wellington in 1896. Between 1896-1975 they clashed 66 times, the Lions winning 42, Southland 18 and there were six draws.

Among the great eras of Wellington rugby was the post WW1 team. Wellington had captured the Ranfurly Shield in 1914 off Taranaki. But with the advent of the Great War, the Shield was put away and it wasn’t until 1919 that Wellington accepted its first challenge. What was also interesting at the time was that Wellington took the Shield on the road and accepted challenges from many of the top unions at their own grounds. In fact, in 16 defences during Wellington’s famous 1919-20 tenure, six were away from home - including a remarkable three away defences in seven days in 1920 against South Canterbury, Otago and Southland. On this whirlwind 1920 tour they defeated South Canterbury (32-15) and Otago (16-5), but their luck ran out when they met Southland in Invercargill – losing 6-17 and thus relinquished the Shield to Southland who won it for the first time in just its third ever challenge.

In September the following year, 1921, Southland reciprocated and brought the Shield to Wellington, the Lions duly recapturing it with a 28-13 victory. Five different players scored Wellington’s five tries in an emphatic win. Perhaps the Southlanders were jaded heading into this return match? Just four days previously, as Ranfurly Shield holders, they met and beat New South Wales and thus “upheld the Dominion’s honour”, as the Dominion newspaper said at the time.

Another interesting side note to this 1921 victory was that the All Blacks played in the curtain raiser, beating Wellington B 32-16 in a practice match in the build-up to the historic first ever Test against South Africa in Dunedin three weeks later. The Dominion noted the next morning: “After being dispossessed of the coveted trophy for twelve months” the Southlanders were “outclassed”.

Following this, Southland were to go on and play a dominant role in the rich tapestry of Shield history in the years before and immediately after the second war world war, holding it again in 1929/30, 1930, 1937 and 1938/39-1947 (interrupted by WW11).

In 1930, it was Wellington who ended one of these runs and once more they held New Zealand’s greatest sporting prize aloft. Wellington, featuring the famous 1924 All Black pair of captain Mark Nicholls at first five-eighth and former Hawke’s Bay star Bert Cooke at second five-eighth, won 12-3 in heavy mud, outscoring the home side four tries to one.

In July 1931 the Lions invited the Southlanders on to Athletic Park for their first home match of the next season for a chance to snatch it back.

Southland were the underdog, but were expected to mount a strong challenge having just lost to Auckland 5-6. Dominion correspondent ‘Five-eighth’ was nevertheless worried. “Although the Wellington side is an exceptional one, the fact remains that it has had only one representative match this year [against Taranaki], and has not had the chances it might have had to develop its team work,” he fretted.

But Five-eighth’s fears needn’t have been necessary when the next day the Dominion reported that Wellington won a “substantial victory” and “mainly through the efforts of a swift back division, Wellington’s rugby representatives defeated Southland by 36 points to 13. First five-eighth and captain HT Lilburne and wings Nelson Ball and EF Barry each scored tries for Wellington. The Dominion went on to report: “It would be hard to find a representative side with a speedier set of backs than Wellington, and yesterday their speed spelt Southland’s defeat.”

Unfortunately, the Lions only had the Ranfurly Shield for one more game. A month later they again took the Shield it on the road and lost 6-8 to Canterbury in Christchurch.