The History of the Southbridge Shield

The 100th year of the Southbridge Shield will be played this weekend between North Canterbury and Ellesmere at the Rangiora Showgrounds on Saturday.  

Gavin Eastwick, previously the President of the Ellesmere Rugby Sub-Union, has never missed a Southbridge Shield game in nearly fifty years. Eastwick believes it is the equivalent of a test match between the sub-unions, “it’s the be all and end all of the rugby season.”   

Eastwick recalls during the 1990’s, “The games were reasonably competitive cause there were no big blow out scores” and “they were all pretty well contested.” 

Former Canterbury and Crusaders coach Robbie Deans still keeps an eye on the progress of rugby from his hometown whilst he lives in Japan. “The history [of the shield] is huge” says Deans, who once came out of retirement to play one more Shield game, “I didn’t want to retire with the shield in Ellesmere. We got it back!” Deans recalled with a chuckle.  

Despite North Canterbury having a strong winning streak during the 1980’s and 1990’s, the total wins are almost even, with Ellesmere only falling behind by single digits.  

Graeme Bennie, the NC development side’s masseur, who played a handful of Southbridge Shield matches in the 1960’s, concurs with Eastwick about the competitiveness and severity of the shield matches to each team. “The boys will be drilled hard by their coaches this week” says Bennie, “the Southbridge Shield is always a big battle.”   

The game will kick off at 12:05pm, with the Tane Norton Trophy also on the line.  

Saturdays 100th anniversary match will be the first time a Southbridge Shield game has played as an NPC curtain raiser, with Canterbury taking on Taranaki at 2:05pm.  

A luncheon will be held Friday 1st September at Rangiora RSA by NCRSU to honour the anniversary of the shield. Tickets can be purchased through NCRU website.  
 

Shield History 

In 1922, President of the Ellesmere Sub-Union and owner of Southbridge Hotel, Pat Delargey, donated the shield to be played for between clubs affiliated with CRFU. Originally named the Delargey shield and to be played for across six sub unions, it was agreed to be renamed the Southbridge Shield in 1932.  

Ellesmere were the first to hold the silverware in 1922, with Ashburton, Peninsula, Hurunui and Malvern each holding it before North Canterbury won it for the first time in 1939. The shield was placed on hold, in North Canterbury’s possession, during World War II and resumed in 1946 when Hurunui took it home.  

Besides the war years, only two more occasions appeared to cause a disrupt. 1931 has no recorded winner, with the likely cause being the Great Depression. The shield was also put on hold, in Ellesmere’s possession, for 2020 and 2021 due to COVID.  

Written by Hannah Yates