{"id":563797,"date":"2026-08-09T13:58:11","date_gmt":"2026-08-09T13:58:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/563797\/"},"modified":"2026-08-09T13:58:11","modified_gmt":"2026-08-09T13:58:11","slug":"canterbury-take-back-shield-in-chaotic-thriller-against-otago","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/563797\/","title":{"rendered":"Canterbury take back Shield in chaotic thriller against Otago"},"content":{"rendered":"

Canterbury have won the Ranfurly Shield for a record 18th time, their hard-fought 19-15 victory over Otago in Dunedin this afternoon taking the Log o\u2019 Wood back up the road to Christchurch.<\/p>\n

But that tells only a smart part of the story of a match which had a huge amount of intensity in keeping with the famous old trophy and a desperate comeback from Otago which just fell short.<\/p>\n

There was also a not insignificant amount of controversy featuring experienced referee Ben O\u2019Keeffe and Canterbury captain Brodie McAlister in the second half.<\/p>\n

McAlister, his eyes on the ball, appeared to collide with O\u2019Keeffe\u2019s hip and went down clutching his cheekbone before being forced off for a head injury assessment.<\/p>\n

“My fault,” O\u2019Keeffe told McAlister, “I was in the way.”<\/p>\n

Compounding the issue, though, was the fact O\u2019Keeffe almost immediately sinbinned the hooker\u2019s replacement Manumaua Letiu for offside after the visitors were warned for constant offending.<\/p>\n

So off Letiu had to go, and, because Canterbury had forced depowered “golden oldie” scrums, one other player also had to depart \u2013 in this case flanker Corey Kellow.<\/p>\n

It was a bizarre sequence of events in which O\u2019Keeffe was a central figure and to make matters worse for 13-man Canterbury, Otago flanker Lucas Casey scored straight away to put his side back in the game.<\/p>\n

At that point it was still 12-8 to Canterbury, the red and blacks having scored via McAlister, from a first-half lineout drive, and impressive lock Jamie Hannah, who went over in the corner three minutes after the halftime siren.<\/p>\n

\"Chay<\/p>\n

Chay Fihaki carries the ball for Canterbury in Dunedin. (Source: Photosport)<\/p>\n

Not one to be denied in his 50th match for Canterbury, McAlister scored another try from a lineout, converted by Richie Mo\u2019unga<\/a>, to extend the lead to 19-8 before prop Benjamin Lopas\u2019s try under the posts, converted by Cam Millar, with six minutes remaining set up a grandstand finish.<\/p>\n

There followed a chaotic sequence of events which involved Millar kicking the ball out on the full with five minutes remaining, a huge tackle from Canterbury wing Chay Fihaki dislodging the ball and giving the advantage back to the visitors, and then Canterbury fullback Johnny McNicholl kicking the ball out on the full.<\/p>\n

With 40 seconds left and Otago chasing the try which would have allowed them to keep the Shield for another week at least, flanker Dom Gardiner won the turnover on his 22m line which allowed Canterbury to run down the clock and claim the victory.<\/p>\n

Otago captain Christian Lio-Willie, an impressive performer along with Casey and wing Jona Nareki, said: “Canterbury came out firing. I couldn\u2019t fault my boys – it just came down to execution.”<\/p>\n

Otago\u2019s lineout was under pressure from the start, and, while Canterbury had an embarrassment of riches in their backline, including Mo\u2019unga, Fihaki, McNicholl, Jone Rova and Dallas McLeod, it was their pack and defence which sealed it.<\/p>\n

The bottom line is Otago\u2019s reign \u2013 they won it off Canterbury last season \u2013 is over after three defences.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe were very proud to have it,\u201d Lio-Willie said of the Shield. \u201cWell deserved to Canterbury – they were better today.\u201d<\/p>\n

Canterbury’s first defence will be against Bay of Plenty in Christchurch on Saturday afternoon.<\/p>\n

TVNZ will broadcast all NPC matches live and free on TVNZ+<\/a>, with three games broadcast on TVNZ 1 \u2013 a flagship Saturday primetime match at 7pm, alongside Saturdays and Sundays at 2pm.<\/p>\n

Canterbury 19 (Brodie McAlister 2, Jamie Hannah tries; Richie Mo\u2019unga 2 cons)<\/p>\n

Otago 15 (Lucas Casey, Benjamin Lopas tries; Cam Millar pen, con)<\/p>\n

Halftime: 12-3<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Canterbury have won the Ranfurly Shield for a record 18th time, their hard-fought 19-15 victory over Otago in…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":563798,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[158,111,139,69,213],"class_list":["post-563797","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-sports","tag-christchurch-canterbury","tag-new-zealand","tag-newzealand","tag-nz","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/563797","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=563797"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/563797\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/563798"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=563797"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=563797"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=563797"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}