We’ve just come off a very hard match against Hawke’s Bay and we’ve qualified for a home semi-final but first we’ve got to defend the Ranfurly Shield against Southland at AMI Stadium on Thursday night.

It will be a very tough match, we’re all well aware of that.

Southland will fancy their chances against us as we won’t have our All Blacks available. The Stags will want to get their hands on the Shield for the first time since 1959, plus they will want to cement a place in the semi-finals.

The Bay played an effective game against us. We knew they would want to put pressure on at the breakdown area and counter-attack and they did that well. The kicked and chased well and hit us behind the advantage line at times.

Still, Canterbury’s lineout and scrum remained dominant and having someone like Dan Carter in your team is a big boost.

He took control at the end and nearly set up a try for Andy Ellis with a good break. Then he ran himself from an attacking scrum and was pushed over for a seven-pointer which effectively won us the game.

The Bay fought until the end and what a thrilling finish it was.

Now we are fully focused on Southland and what they will bring to AMI Stadium on Thursday night. We played them in Invercargill in a pre-season so we know a bit about them.

They’ve got fairly rugged forwards and will compete in the set pieces and breakdowns. Their backs are handy too – Robbie Robinson is a class act and their wing Pehi Te Whare is a good finisher.

The guys who didn’t go to Napier with Canterbury have focused solely on this match so we should be pretty well prepared.

We just hope we get a good crowd at AMI Stadium. Believe me, it makes a big difference. We got just over 17,000 for the Otago defence and the atmosphere was sensational.

Thanks for your support.

Rob Penney
Canterbury Head Coach