Magpies vice captain Brad Weber and head coach Brock James spoke to media today after a training session.
Weber described the context the accident happened in: "During the night, Saturday night it was great - we'd just brought the shield back... really joyous and stoked to bring it back to the community.
"We'd just had a big bus ride back to Napier, and we had a night out as we do to celebrate what was a really good performance... it was a good night, and then obviously at some point the shield was dropped and it broke."
"But the boys that were there are all really consistent, and... I really trust what they're saying.
“We are hurting that this has happened.’’
Weber said he was not willing to speculate on the white powder later seen in pictures of the broken shield, or who was at the celebration at the time the shield was dropped.
"There's a New Zealand Rugby investigation, we're going to be fully cooperative with that."
Asked if the team would undergo drug testing, Weber said if NZ Rugby asked for that as part of the investigation they would.
James said the breaking of the shield was hurting the team. Whether any disciplinary action would be handed out, would have to wait until the findings of the investigation were known.
"It's in the hands of the investigation. The instructions we've had is to get ready for a game.
"We understand the importance of the shield, we're very disappointed in the fact that we've ended up breaking the shield - for the effort we put in to get it ...Wellington went 19 games undefeated until we got the shield off them. I'd like to have thought that that accident wouldn't have happened, but like I say, it was an accident.
"We've had to move on quite quickly, we still have a game, at least one to go - we're planning on three... we really want to get another three weeks of rugby in.
"We really want to win the respect back of people that we've hurt through breaking this shield and the accident, it's nice to have training and the game as a bit of distraction from this."
What happened so far?
Images of two pieces of the broken shield and a Magpies player began circulating on Sunday morning. That prompted the club to release an initial statement saying the shield was broken when it was dropped on concrete by a player, in a genuine accident.
However, more photos later emerged, of white powder on the shield, some divided into lines.
New Zealand Rugby said it was launching an investigation and would take possession of the shield to start repairs.
The Magpies won the shield on Saturday from the Wellington Lions in a 20-18 win at Wellington's Sky Stadium.
