Former Manu Samoa No 10 and freelance rugby scribe Campbell Burnes is looking forward to seeing what another season of NPC finals footy looks like come October.
Spring is here and that means finals footy is near.
The start of October sees calving in full swing and the kickoff of the Women’s Rugby World Cup is upon us.
It is also, fingers and toes crossed, the NPC post-season. The first quarter-final is slated for October 7. There are again two tables, but this time just one prize, the Rugby Cup. The age of the Premiership and Championaship is over after a decade of confusion and annoyance for some fans. The old format served its purpose but now we have three weeks of playoffs.
It so happens that 2022 marks 30 years since the NPC decided that playoffs would be the best way to finish the provincial season. From 1976 to ’91, it was top of the log in the two or three divisions that won the chocolates/silverware.
The drama of the 1992 NPC first division playoffs led everyone to wonder why it took them so long to come round to this sensible new format, five years after Rugby World Cup announced its existence with quarters, semis, and two finals, one of them the despised ‘bronze medal’ match.
In 1992, Auckland lost its first division semifinal, 27-21, to Waikato, in a match made famous by the infamous ‘Hand of Purvey’ incident, whereby Mooloos prop Graham Purvis used his hand to rake the ball back in a scrum. This was just the second defeat at the Garden of Eden for the Auks in nine seasons. Luckily, the Log o’ Wood was not up for grabs in the playoffs.
The next day, a Sunday, there was more semifinal drama at Carisbrook, a late Greg Cooper try in extra time carrying Otago to a 26-23 cliffhanger victory in which Johnny Timu, of all people, potted a drop goal. How about that? The fans loved this new playoffs lark. New Zealand Rugby was onto a winner.
There was less drama in the final, which was held in Hamilton. It should have been in Dunedin, as Otago had qualified second on the table, while Waikato was fourth. But the southerners had hosted the Mooloos just three weeks before, so to Rugby Park the decider went.
The season’s climax, the first-ever NPC final, will forever be recalled as the occasion when Richard Loe decided to rake his fingers across Greg Cooper’s eyes. The men at the centre of this controversy get on fine now but it did rather seal Loe’s reputation in the eyes of many.
I can tell you that the embattled Ian Foster had a blinder, scoring a try and snapping a dropped goal. Mind you, his pack did the damage in emphatic fashion.
In every season since then, the NPC has thrown up some playoffs drama. What about the sensational comeback by Counties Manukau in the 1997 semi versus Waikato or the 2004 decider when Ma’a Nonu wore his eyeliner for Wellington against Canterbury? Or the Tasman Mako’s coming of age in 2019-20?
Brace yourself for more provincial pride-inspired drama in October.
