Sir Glen Jackson, Kevin Senio, Rua Tipoki, Grant McQuoid, Adrian Cashmore, Apoua Stewart, Aleki Lutui, Wayne Ormond, Paul Tupai, Taufa’ao Filise. Yesterday was the 2^nd anniversary of the Bay’s historic Ranfurly Shield victory over Auckland. The 10 players listed all started that game and are no longer contracted to the Bay. That constitutes a huge loss of talent and experience.

As supporters, we have very high expectations but the Fan in the Stand believes now is the time for some realism. The replacements for the departed stars are mostly young and inexperienced at this level of rugby. While the front five remains almost intact, the backline has just Anthony Tahana from 2 years ago and of the rest only Jamie Nutbrown has played Super 14. We have to give our young players the time to gain experience and the future of the Bay is dependent on developing and retaining these players. Now we hear rumours that our top players are being targeted with offers from other unions.

If the Bay, an averagely powerful union in the new 14 team competition, can have its best players lured away then how are the likes of Tasman, Hawke’s Bay and Counties going to cope? Canterbury are being very generous to Tasman right now, using them as an overflow for their swollen talent pool but how will the Tasman players react when the likes of Otago and Waikato come calling with the lure of a Super 14 contract? 

A fairly large crowd was present on Saturday night to see the North Harbour defeat. The numbers were undoubtedly boosted by the offer of free tickets around the local schools. I hope the union continues to encourage the next generation of fans in this way, although the rush to the exits with 15 minutes remaining indicates that maybe some of these kids and their parents won’t be back next time.  

The Bay forwards were excellent against Harbour. The lineout was efficient and the scrum was strong but unfortunately we didn’t create much in the backline. The first time we did, a forward pass was called in error and from the resulting scrum Harbour scored an excellent try. Another break and a chip over the full-back may have led to a Bay try – instead George Pisi caught the ball and it was a try at the other end.

Add into the pot a fierce wind against us that mysteriously abated at half-time and repeat after me “We were robbed!!!”  Appropriately we are back at Eden Park this Sunday afternoon. There is no Shield to play for but a win will keeps our top 3 hopes alive. Lose and we are condemned to the repechage – with that thought, 5 reasons to be cheerful for Bay fans. 

We have yet to concede a 4 try bonus point.
It rained on Saturday night and we didn’t get wet.
We still have to play Manawatu.
We held the Shield more recently than Waikato.
Auckland don’t like it up ‘em.

Go the Bay!