VIKING LEGACY
The rise and fall of a contentious team
Uniting a pair of sworn enemies to create a cohesive team always appeared fraught with danger. Many Hawke’s Bay and Manawatu¯ matches have ended in fisticuffs over the years, but for a brief two-year run, the provinces held hands under the joint desire to climb out of the depths of the National Provincial Championship’s second division.
In 1997, the Vikings were born. Gone were the black and white of Hawke’s Bay and the green and white of Manawatu¯ . Fans were instead asked to don orange and blue.
By the end of 1998, the team was no more. A pile of debt was the lasting legacy of the team that, despite losing just three second division matches in two years, would never make it to the first division.
But, the lessons of the two unions’ battle against inequality in provincial rugby left a resounding mark on the rugby landscape that helped spark change in provincial rugby.
The concept was born in 1996. Manawatu¯ were well removed from their glory years of the 1970s, but remained ambitious.
Neighbours Hawke’s Bay were interested in a joint venture and when the boards met, they called on Dave Gaynor as a business adviser.
‘‘The purpose was to have a team that could get into the first division and be sustainable. At the time, it was clear that even if [a second division team] got into first division, you would not have enough money to sign the right players to be able to sustain it,’’ he says.
‘‘The boards of both Manawatu¯ and Hawke’s Bay had a big debate about it and decided that it was not possible for either one of the two unions to be able to sustain a topperforming first division team without substantial funding.
‘‘I think that the logic behind that was very sound.’’
In May 1996, the unions made a joint announcement that they would pursue a Central rugby team.
Then Manawatu¯ rugby writer Peter Lampp says there were plenty of people against the merger early on.
‘‘It was an unnatural alliance, especially given the competitiveness between the two unions. It was a bit like consorting with the enemies in some ways,’’ he says.
New Zealand Rugby eventually opted to allow the team to go ahead for the 1997 season and the Vikings wasted no time recruiting an allstar cast.
They started with Manawatu¯ and Hurricanes coach Frank Oliver, then ensured they retained Manawatu¯ ’s best asset – star fullback Christian Cullen.
Then came Stephen Bachop, Roger Randle, Danny Lee, Chresten Davis, Dion Waller and Mark ‘‘Bull’’ Allen.
But the first trouble hit the venture shortly after they adopted the moniker the Central Vikings.
It was a name that already belonged to the Northland Vikings Rugby Football Club.
The northerners were irked that another team was attempting to use their name and issued complaints to New Zealand Rugby and the Central rugby board.
The messy situation was eventually settled with Central writing the Northland club an $8000 cheque for each year it used the name.
It was a small hitch, but did not stop a full-force marketing campaign.
Gaynor, who became the Vikings convenor for their first season, says that was one part they nailed.
‘‘I remember the first game. We had thousands of people there and women screaming in the stands.
‘‘It is unheard of for that to happen.
‘‘There was not anybody who was interested in rugby who did not know who the Vikings were when we kicked off.’’
That added to the intense pressure to perform.
The Vikings started well, posting a host of big scorelines, but then stumbled to Bay of Plenty and Northland.
But in the days leading to the final against Northland, New Zealand Rugby, then the NZRFU, dropped a bombshell on the team, stating that since the unions had not amalgamated, the Vikings would not be eligible for promotion to the first division.
‘‘The NZRFU board today accepted that view, thereby granting Northland, as outright winner of the round robin competition, promotion to division one... regardless of the outcome of the division two final,’’ their statement read.
The Vikings rolled over in the dead-rubber final 63-10.
They side was granted one further season, but they lost Cullen, who, after four years of second-division rugby with Manawatu¯ , wanted a taste of the top.
During that second year, there was growing dissent within the rugby community.
‘‘They were starting to get more opposition from within, especially from some Hawke’s Bay people who were particularly against it. They were organising so things and the team felt like they were under siege from within,’’ Lampp says.
Results on the field did not reflect that.
They won all eight round robin matches, picking up four-try bonus points in seven of them, then cruised through to the final, beating Bay of Plenty 33-18.
The celebrations were quickly muted by the lengthy wait regarding the promotion of the team.
Finally, in November 1998, the New Zealand Rugby Union announced that the side had not satisfied the criteria for promotion.
It left Vikings officials fuming. ‘‘For two years they have stuffed us around,’’ said Vikings chief executive Ian Condon, who accused the union of shifting the goalposts on them.
And, after the announcement, Vikings chairman Kevin Quigan sent out a press release confirming the Vikings experiment was over.
‘‘We feel that many of the factors surrounding the game in our region were not given sufficient consideration by the NZRFU, and there may be a message in that for other unions, but we must accept the decision, make the best of it, and get on with maintaining our clubs and agegroup infrastructures in order that the game we love so dearly will continue to prosper in our region.’’
Things would only get messier as the unions waited to learn the financial impact of the venture.
Board members received a rowdy reception when they said the Vikings financial report would not be revealed at the Manawatu¯ Rugby Union’s annual meeting in December 1998.
In July 1999, the financial statements were finally put on the table.
They made for painful reading, with a combined deficit of $596,897 over two years.
Both unions have since recovered from the damage to the ledgers.
And Gaynor has no regrets over the experiment.
‘‘If you knew what the result was going to be before you started, then you would never start,’’ he says. ‘‘To some extent, the pressure from the Vikings, although it was not successful, encouraged the rugby union to think about new ways of doing things.’’
The biggest change came in 2006, with the expansion of the provincial competition. Both Manawatu¯ and Hawke’s Bay were ushered into the top flight of provincial rugby in their own right, along with Counties Manukau and Tasman – a joint team from Nelson Bays and Marlborough that has parallels to the Vikings.
‘‘I think what the legacy of [the Vikings] was when they came to revamp the NPC to what it is today, I think they would have had in the back of their minds some of the arguments that we put forward about the unfairness of what was the first, second and third division,’’ Gaynor says.
‘‘If by any small way that the Central Vikings led to that resolution and result, I think that it was a good result.’’