Editorial: Will we be celebrating a new era

First of all, C'mon the Bay.

At about 7.35pm tonight our rugby loyal will either be clinging to a bygone era - or celebrating a new one.

Either scenario depends on the black and white hoops battle with the amber and black hoops in Taranaki for a shot at the Ranfurly Shield.

Safe to say I'm reasonably excited.

This most illustrious of footy trophies transcends the massive changes seen in this code during the past few decades.

Professionalism hasn't touched it. A fragmented and ever-fluid NPC structure hasn't touched it. Super Rugby hasn't touched it. World Cup successes and failures haven't touched it. And, for the past 43 years, neither has Hawke's Bay.

As much as I'm sure coaches Danny Lee and Craig Philpott will disagree with me, I regard lifting the Log o' Wood as more important than our end result in the current competition.

It's magical. It's charmed. It naturally imparts a completely new dimension to the holder's season. As it does to the challengers'.

To this fan, there is nothing else.

Quite frankly I tire of coaches stressing they're "building" on performances, or "creating momentum" or "forward looking". They, quite understandably, take a seasonal outlook.

In stark contrast, shield games are finals. They're domestic rugby's wildcard.

For a glorious 80 minutes a team's overall placing, ranking or TAB odds, mean nothing.

This is unequivocally the most sacrosanct prize remaining in New Zealand rugby.

And it's not just me.

Players' zest on the field - and fans' zeal in the stands - in said games, reflect this.

But of course a shield, by its very nature, is a defensive weapon. If the Magpies win tonight we then have the onerous honour of warding off three potential offensive challenges in home games against Bay of Plenty, Otago and Canterbury, in that order.

What a fabulous prospect.

Fans queuing for those fixtures will be thinking less of our overall place in the NPC, and only of that game's outcome.

Talk about reinvigorating our home games. Success tonight will mean a boon on every level.

Like me, anyone in this province born after 1969 has yet to see a Magpies captain hold it aloft.

In that same year, Neil Armstrong stepped onto the Moon.

If I can be a little indulgent, I'd maybe see his recent death as a portent. Has his passing signalled the end of a barren era? One small step for footy, one giant leap for the Hawke's Bay Magpies.