Otago's Ranfurly Shield victory in 2013 was a special time for Phil Young although it was a long time coming.
Young was assistant coach of the side which ended Otago's shield drought of 56 years without the prized trophy.
He admitted the shield had given him plenty of heartache over the years.
"We went up there to Waikato one year and Miah Melsom ripped my face up. Broke my cheek, had to have 40 stitches in my face,'' he said.
"I think I have three challenges as a player and then four to five as a coach with Otago and Southland, always coming up short.''
Young said it was a bit of a cliche but going into the challenge against Waikato in 2013 the side just treated it as another game.
"We just did not talk about the shield. I talked to the team before the game ... this was a real opportunity for us. As long as everyone understood their role, we went out and had a crack then we could have some fun.
"And we did, we had nine days of it.''
The province enjoyed the shield being back in Otago after such a long absence but Otago lost the first challenge to Hawkes Bay in a dramatic game in front off a big crowd at Forsyth Barr Stadium.
"The whole province really got into it. But it was always going to be hard going up against Hawkes Bay straight away.
"The players got caught in the headlights in that first half. But they came back well in the second half and it was so close. I reckon if we had won that game we would have held on to it for the rest of the season. The guys would have grown so much from there.''
