 |
Sideline Sid Sports correspondant & historian www.sunlive.co.nz |
It's that time of year where Sideline Sid starts to get a little frisky – it has nothing to do with the coming of spring (and the new cricket season) - but because the start of the mighty Bay of Plenty Steamers 2013 ITM Cup campaign is little more than a month away.
Sideline Sid follows just two rugby teams with a real fervor - the All Blacks and the side that wear the Blue and Gold strip with passion and pride. While he takes a little interest in the Chiefs and the New Zealand Warriors that play in the NRL, it is the team in the black jersey of New Zealand and the Steamers that grab his full attention.
Steamers Head Coach 'Herb” Schuler has selected his squad and they are now going through the final paces to the start of the Steamers 2013 NPC campaign, which kicks off against Otago on Sunday, August 18 in the far south.
In a 10 game ITM Cup schedule the Steamers have five home fixtures, which are again split between the Western Bay and Rotorua, where the big bands of Steamers supporters can get behind 'Our Team” in vocal support.
In recent years the Bay of Plenty first fifteen has made both Baypark and the Rotorua International Stadium a virtual fortress, where the visiting sides have found victory as hard to get as pulling teeth.
Who can forget last season's demolition of Auckland in Rotorua. Since the first encounter between the two unions in 1912, the Bay side entered the game with just 11 wins from 57 meetings between the two teams.
However, one of the 11 victories included the proudest moment in Bay of Plenty rugby history, when Bay of Plenty lifted the Ranfurly Shield from Auckland in 2004 posting a 33-28 victory.
In last year's annual contest, former New Zealand 7's player Lance MacDonald set the game alight mid way through the first spell when he snaffled the ball from the visitors to scamper 20 metres to score. Ten minutes later he was at it again grabbing his second try of the encounter.
The Steamers took a 24-6 lead into half time and went on to post a outstanding 37-16 win in front of a delighted home crowd.
One of the features of the match was a near 7000 crowd that braved the Friday night cold in Rotorua to get behind the Steamers. While some previous seasons had seen a wide disparity between the attendance figures at Baypark and the Rotorua international Stadium, last year saw the return of the Rotorua fans in large numbers.
There is the same split of games between the two Bay cities this year with Baypark hosting three matches and Rotorua two.
The Steamers home campaign opens against long time rivals Hawke's Bay at Baypark on Sunday 25 August 2013. The match-ups with the 'Other Bay” are always hard fought affairs, with last year's battle being taking out by Hawke's Bay in a 42-41 thriller in Napier. The record between the two sides stands at Bay of Plenty 24 Hawkes Bay 19, with one drawn encounter.
Canterbury pay a visit to the Sulphur City on Thursday 5th September, with Southland squaring off against the Steamers at the Mount in a Wednesday night hit-out on the 18th September. Counties Manukau on Sunday 29th September is followed by the game that should draw the biggest home crowd of the season, when Waikato hit Baypark on a Saturday afternoon on the fifth day of October. The traditional matches between the two arch rivals date back to 1926 with the team from over the hill winning 46 of the 74 match-ups
Seeya at the Steamers Games