The Otago Daily Times counts down the 150 greatest moments in Otago sport.
No 32: The great Ranfurly Shield season (1948)
There is general agreement Otago has had three genuinely great rugby teams since World War 2.
The 1975 side swept aside all comers and would certainly have won the first national championship had it been introduced a year earlier.
And, 23 years later, a remarkable Otago team inspired by the likes of Jeff Wilson, John Leslie and Taine Randell was in utterly devastating form as it marched to NPC glory.
But ask the old-timers, and they will tell you both of those sides must be ranked slightly behind the 1948 team.
Otago was effectively the home of New Zealand rugby in the years following the war. It had the best players, the best coaches, the best fans ... and it had the Ranfurly Shield.
The greatest Otago Shield era was between 1947 and 1950, when it defended the Log o' Wood 18 times.
For one single season, it would hard to go past 1948.
Otago played nine games and was beaten just once, when an under-strength side was pipped 14-8 by North Otago in Oamaru.
The blue and golds won all seven of their Ranfurly Shield defences, scoring 175 points (41 tries, 11 conversions, eight penalties and two drop goals) and conceding just 15.
Southland was thumped 25-0. Canterbury was smashed 31-0. Poverty Bay, coming off an undefeated season, was hammered 40-0 on a sodden pitch. South Canterbury (36-6), Wanganui (20-3) and Wellington (11-0) were also dispatched at Carisbrook.
The Otago backline included dangerous wingers Bill Meates and Ian Botting, inspirational captain and centre Ron Elvidge, and the exceptional five-eighth pairing of Jimmy Kearney and Laurie Haig.
Up front - where seven of the eight forwards made the All Blacks - Charlie Willocks and Lester Harvey formed a peerless second row, "Owaka Jack" McNab was a roaming breakaway, and Kevin Skinner, Norm Wilson and Ray Dalton were a dominant front row.
Guiding the show was the immortal Vic Cavanagh jun, a coaching genius widely regarded as the unluckiest man never to coach the All Blacks.
Off the field in 1948, Ranfurly Shield fever was at its peak, with morning parades in the main street of Dunedin before the large crowds walked to Carisbrook.
The following year, Otago would supply a record 11 players to the All Black squad that toured South Africa - and it would still retain the Ranfurly Shield.
