Shield success well-deserved

The mighty Stags
This is their special moment, not ours, but Otago rugby fans must shelve any feelings of jealousy and embrace Southland's excitement at winning the Ranfurly Shield.

Our great rival and neighbour has done a wonderful thing and we should encourage the Stags and their supporters to revel in their achievement.

All week, I'd been telling anyone who cared to listen that I couldn't bear the thought of Southland lifting the Log o' Wood for the first time in 50 years, given Otago has come so close over the last 52 years.

But as the game unfolded, I lost any parochial bitterness.

With 20 minutes to go, as it became clear the miracle was possible, I started cheering lustily for the Stags.

Southland deserves this success. The union was in the doldrums a decade ago but built its way back, using three key philosophies:

1. Continuity. Faith was shown in Simon Culhane and David Henderson as co-coaches year after year, and players were retained.

2. Loyalty. In the bad old days, Southland shipped in imports from all over the place. Now the Stags have a team built around homegrown stars.

3. Community. It is doubtful any other team in the country reflects its people quite like Southland does.

I'm delighted for the astute men at the top like the coaches and chief executive Roger Clark, and for the Stags captain, Jamie Mackintosh, who stayed loyal to the Highlanders two weeks ago and has carved a very large place for himself in Southland rugby history.

I'm even happy for my old sparring partner, Southland Times sports editor Nathan Burdon, even if he will be reminding me of the Shield game for the next 50 years.

The talent spotter
It must have been about four years ago that my colleague, the estimable Alistair McMurran, alerted me to the emergence of a promising young back at the Green Island rugby club.

This kid - barely out of Kings High School - was playing first five and was impressing McMurran, the doyen of Dunedin club rugby, with his poise and balance.

Confusingly, the youngster shared a name with another local rugby player, a New Zealand Colt and Otago University back of some promise.

But soon it was Ben Smith No 2 who was making people take notice.

McMurran liked Smith the Younger so much he wrote a famous piece in the weekly club page labelling him "Ben Larkham-Smith" for his resemblance to a certain skinny, white, patient, headgear-wearing Wallabies star.

Not for the first time, the voice of club rugby predicted an All Black jersey lay in store for a young Dunedin player.

And, not for the first time, those of us of a more cynical bent rolled our eyes ever so slightly. Shows what we know.

McMurran turned out to be on the mark with his assessment of the most exciting back to emerge in Otago since Jeff Wilson.

I'm not surprised Ben Smith made the All Blacks. He's had a fantastic year, he's got all the skills and he's going to be a star.

Martin's special projects
Otago coach Steve Martin deserves his share of praise for Smith's exciting progress and elevation to the top level.

Martin has shown his ability to identify and develop talent in two cases, in particular, since getting the job.

He was virtually the one person who had faith in the special skills of Adam Thomson, who turned from a club player to an All Black and Otago's best player, with the backing of his coach.

Martin also picked Smith out of nowhere and put him at fullback. The rest is history.

Return of the Kings
Ben Smith becomes lucky No 13 on the list of All Blacks from Dunedin's Kings High School.

The others were Ray Bell (1951-52), John Hotop (1952,1955), Chris Laidlaw (1963-68, 1970), Ian Smith (1963-66), Laurie Mains (1971, 1976), Lindsay Clark (1972-73), Kupu Vanisi (1999), Tony Brown (1999-2001), Paul Miller (2001), Carl Hayman (2001-02, 2004-07), Tom Willis (2001-02) and Joe McDonnell (2002).

I am told Ben Smith is also the second All Black from Abbotsford School, after Alexander "Sandy" Kerr, who played one game in 1896.

Smith played for the Kings First XV as a halfback from 2002 to 2004, where his team-mates included Otago first five Glenn Dickson, New Zealand Colts hooker Brayden Mitchell and premier club players Josh Clark, Glenn Watson, Simon Versteeg, Opini To'omalati, Travis Shaw, Nathan Johnston, Eddie Sefo, Ta'avili Patea, To'o Ai'i, Nathan May and Kensak Palepoi.

An excerpt from the Kings magazine in 2004 read:"Ben Smith (captain) in his third year in the team had a secure position at halfback but early in the season had to play at first five, where he certainly made an impact with his strong runs.

As halfback, Ben was always safe and had lots of talent with his useful box kicks and darting runs.

He has the ability to stay on his feet in the tackle and always looked to pass the ball to the support players.

Ben showed a lot of flair and always fronted up, to lead by example."

Going in cycles
What a shame red tape got in the way of Otago cyclist Greg Henderson competing in the Tour of Southland next month.

Imagine the interest a clash between former world champion Henderson and disqualified Tour de France winner Floyd Landis would have created.

Apparently, riders have certain rankings, as do events, and if your ranking is too high for an event you need dispensation.

I assumed it was simple. Henderson ranks an A - for either awesome or athletic. Landis ranks a D - for, well, you work it out.

A Mauger acquisition
New Zealand's greatest motorcycle racer will hand over a slice of history to the New Zealand Sports Hall of Fame on Tuesday.

Ivan Mauger, the six-time world speedway No 1, is presenting the Jawa bike on which he won the last of his individual titles to the hall at the Dunedin Railway Station.

He captured his record sixth individual crown on a Czech-manufactured Jawa double-overhead-cam machine in front of 130,000 people in Poland in 1979.

OD-Tweet sport
The Otago Daily Times sports department is joining the world of Twitter. Sign up at twitter.com and look for us (twitter.com/odtsport).

We'll be posting teasers for stories coming up in the newspaper, breaking news and links to the ODT website. Should be a tweet.

hayden.meikle@odt.co.nz