It might be 56 years ago but it seemed like yesterday to members of the previous Otago team to win the Ranfurly Shield.
Some of the members of that 1957 side reacquainted themselves with the treasured Log o' Wood yesterday, walking down memory lane to recall what happened after they won the shield from Wellington.
''Bill Hogg, who was a big supporter of Otago rugby and owned the New Club Hotel here in Dunedin, rung up the Midland Hotel in Wellington, where we were staying, and shouted us a crate of Champagne,'' Jim Darling (78), the Otago fullback, said.
''The Otago rugby union got embarrassed by that, so they shouted us a crate, too. And we had never drunk wine before. We just thought it was like beer, drinking it out of 7oz glasses. That soon caught up with us.''
Ian Stevens (83), who played hooker, said the side was not overconfident going into the match.
''The team that won last Friday night were underdogs but I tell you, we were really underdogs. We were given no show by anyone,'' Stevens said.
Tuppy Diack (83), the winger and future All Black, remembered the game well.
''Our manager, Harry Harley, was a staunch Presbyterian, and he said if we won, he would go to church on Sunday with all the `Doolans'. And he did.
''But the reason we won that game was Charlie Saxton, our coach. I said to [wife] Margaret: 'Do not worry; we will bring it home'.''
The 1957 squad was on a tour of the North Island when it won the shield and did not get back to Dunedin for nearly a month.
There was a street parade, which Grant Moody (83), an inside back, said was great, but the side had to first defend the shield against South Canterbury (won 6-3) and then play Taranaki in a hastily arranged game.
''We should have never played them. We had played 13 games in seven weeks. But we did and we lost,'' Darling said.
None of the group thought that loss to Taranaki (9-11) in 1957 would be the start of a long drought for the province, a drought which ended last Friday night as Otago beat shield-holder Waikato 26-19.
''That was magnificent,'' Darling said.
