Canterbury reclaim Ranfurly Shield

This makes last week's thrashing taste ever-so slightly less sour. Early this morning, via NZH:

Canterbury blasted Waikato off their own ground in the first half tonight to cut their Ranfurly Shield reign to one of the shortest in its history.

In the process they also took maximum Air NZ Cup rugby points to maintain their lead in the competition alongside Auckland.

Canterbury rocketed off the blocks at Rugby Park and maintained a staggering momentum for the entire first half in which they scored all their points, including five tries.

They wrapped up the bonus point on offer by the end of the first quarter and led 33-13 at halftime. [...]

A week earlier Waikato had shown a similar game to Canterbury's when they took the shield off North Harbour.

Canterbury 33 (Tim Bateman, Corey Flynn, Rico Gear, Scott Hamilton, Hamish Gard tries; Stephen Brett 4 con).

Waikato 20 (Roimate Hansell-Pune, Stephen Donald tries; Stephen Donald 2 pen, 2 con).

Halftime 33-13.

It was almost a year ago that North Harbour upset Canterbury to win their first-ever Ranfurly Shield.

*sniff*