By Stu Piddington

The 1974 Ranfurly Shield winning team is the latest Legends of South Canterbury inductee after being honoured at the South Canterbury Sports Awards on Friday night.

Vice-captain Ken Tarrant said the honour came as a total surprise.

"We were just getting together for a reunion and attending the awards was just a nice add-on, none of us had any idea. Someone kept it close to their chest."

The heroes of the shock 18-6 victory are the fourth inductees into the legends category and the team's banner was unveiled at the awards held at the Southern Trust Event. It will hang alongside other inductees' banners: world cycling team pursuit champion Marc Ryan, speed skater Nicole Begg and 1936 Olympic 1500m gold medallist Jack Lovelock at the centre.

Tarrant said he vividly remembered the 1974 win and the return to Timaru Airport.

"I still remember looking out my window and being stunned seeing the thousands of cars lined up on all the roads to the airport, all the way back to the main road. It was unbelievable.

"It was a tremendous atmosphere."

Tarrant said while they were certainly the underdogs in the press going into the game, the team had plenty of self-belief they could do the job.

"We had beaten Canterbury in the two previous games and one of those teams had plenty of All Blacks. Also, we had the next challenge against Canterbury when Marlborough took it off them so thought we were due.

"We certainly believed we had a shot and we also had All Black flanker Tom Lister in the pack which helped."

Tarrant remembers the first half was a matter of digging in against the Red Devils.

"The second half seemed to go better as we got an idea of the pace of the game."

Centre Gene Thomsen's outstanding try sealed a famous victory, with No.8 Dave Cochrane having earlier got across the line and fullback Doug Nicol landed two conversions and two penalties.

Tarrant remembered the tremendous support from the South Canterbury public both before and after the challenge.

"It was a pretty amazing couple of weeks really.

"The radio station had a song for us and we had our mascot 'Humphrey the Camel'."

Tarrant believed the other important factor was their coach Jim Dawson.

"Jim was a very good coach, he spread training around to Waimate and Fairlie so everyone felt part of the team."

South Canterbury's win was also noteworthy as it is the last time a smaller provincial union has held the Log o' Wood aloft.

The New Zealand Rugby Almanack wrote: "There was little in South Canterbury's earlier displays to suggest they would capture the Ranfurly Shield . . . on the day, the defeat of Marlborough was well merited".

South Canterbury went on to defend the Shield against Oamaru 9-3 before losing it a controversial challenge by Wellington by the same score.

The New Zealand Rugby Union had forced South Canterbury to accept the challenge three days after playing North Otago and Wellington boasted All Blacks backs Grant Batty, Mark Sayers, John Dougan and Andy Leslie in the pack.

Ken Milne was also a key in the victory and he has the honour of being last South Canterbury captain to hold the Ranfurly Shield aloft.

The 1974 South Canterbury team was: Doug Nicol (fullback), Murray Roberts (wing), Larni Palmer (wing), Gene Thomson (centre), Alan McLaren (second five), Rod Dorgan (first five), Ken Tarrant (halfback), Dave Cochrane (No 8), Tom Lister (flanker), Noel Glass (flanker), Noel Dennison (lock), Bill Anderson (lock), Peter Walsh (prop), Ken Milne (hooker, captain), Mick Lindsay (prop), Brian Wilton (replacement for Glass). Coach: Jim Dawson, selectors: Des Mulcahy, Stuie Sutherland

Article added: Monday 20 May 2019