You can thank Phil Young for that.
The former Otago coach helped engineer a wonderful upset when Otago defeated Waikato 26-19 to snatch the Log O’Wood and bring to an end one of New Zealand’s most storied lean runs.
It had been 56 years since Otago had had the Ranfurly Shield in its possession and, boy, did the province embrace its return.
The Shield went on a whirlwind tour to every nook and cranny.
All sorts of people joined the queue to snap a selfie with it.
In just over a week it was gone. Hawke’s Bay came and conquered, winning 20-19. Seven years later they are back, hoping to whisk the Shield away again.
Otago won it for the third time in seven years when it beat Taranaki 30-19 on Sunday. Its first defence is against Hawke’s Bay at Forsyth Barr Stadium on Sunday.
Young thinks this team is much better placed to hold on to it this time around.
"I thought they [the Otago side] were outstanding against Taranaki with the way they approached the game, so that was encouraging," he said.
"They will go into the game with confidence. The year we played them we were in our shell a wee bit. This group will have a better take on how to approach it."
"It was quite evident when we were there that there was no hype and no talk about it."
There was not much of a crowd either. But the Otago contingent was very obvious and very vocal. They sparked the visitors on.
"We wanted to go up there and create history rather than the old cliche of going up there for a game of footy and whatever happens, happens," he said.
"We put a lot of emphasis on the Shield and just gave it a real crack and ultimately it turned out in our favour.
"It was awesome."
It meant a lot personally for Young. He had tried and failed to win it previously, both as a player and a coach.
"Our boys just rolled their sleeves up and, on that particular day, you could sense something was going to happen."
"When [Hayden Parker] scored that try it gave us a wee bit of breathing space and we just hung on."
The final minutes felt like hours, Young said. The celebrations lasted even longer.
"There was a lot of celebration, let’s put it this way. We may have possibly overdone it a wee bit.
"It was a pretty special time all right. The joy and the thrill on people’s faces when they got a look at it or got to touch it. Everybody embraced the moment."
Losing the Shield to Hawke’s Bay just over a week later was "gut-wrenching", he said.
"We felt we had let ourselves and the whole province down. But we were a young bunch in front of big crowd and it was new to everybody.
"At halftime we had to refocus and just go about our job. As it turned out we were unlucky not to hold on to it in the end."