Rather Stupid? Opunake Cup

[mikeynz]

3 minutes ago, The Centaur said:

H'mm.... got to admit this wasn't the Ranfurly Shield event I relate to. I went to the first challenge Taranaki had in 1957 against Golden Bay-Motueka which Taranaki won about 57 nil. Even for game like that there would have been almost 30,000 present with all the hoopla etc associated with it. In fact crowds up to in excess of 40,000 for other shield games were common.

Looking at the Manaia event on youtube was a bit depressing compared to the 1957-61 era. Of interest a lot of the players from that era ended up being keen racing owners e.g. Neil Wolfe, Ross Brown etc.

Wasn't that long ago shield matches, major shield matches drew big crowds, spose 20 years ain't that long ago and hasn't amalgamation done wonders for Rugby in the top of the South Island, maybe some others unions could consider it.

[PeterLambFan]

56 minutes ago, The Centaur said:

H'mm.... got to admit this wasn't the Ranfurly Shield event I relate to. I went to the first challenge Taranaki had in 1957 against Golden Bay-Motueka which Taranaki won about 57 nil. Even for game like that there would have been almost 30,000 present with all the hoopla etc associated with it. In fact crowds up to in excess of 40,000 for other shield games were common.

Looking at the Manaia event on youtube was a bit depressing compared to the 1957-61 era. Of interest a lot of the players from that era ended up being keen racing owners e.g. Neil Wolfe, Ross Brown etc.

I was there today, the ground sold out. I’m not sure what more you want them to do? They put an event on and people turned up. 

The game on the field was a little bit disappointing due to Thames not firing a shot and it pretty quickly turning into an opposed training run. 
 

I’m not having a crack at you but the days of crowds anything like that for a shield or NPC match are long long gone, life gets busy and technology makes it easier to not go to events.