Dream may vanish in a 'poof' of rhetoric

David Ogilvie | 23rd July 2010

"Thanks, Lawsie!"

Or more to the point, "No thanks."

That was the message from Wanganui's travelling rugby team yesterday after reading Wanganui Mayor Michael Laws' admittedly joking comments about Southlanders being "poofy".

Now big city guys might take that sort of thing on the chin - but your down-to-earth Southlander?

The mayor's jibe - even if in fun as a rejoinder to Invercargill Mayor Tim Shadbolt -  is likely to go down in the Southland dressing-room like a ton of bricks on a pavlova.

So the Wanganui team's invitation to Mayor Laws when the game starts is to come into the first couple of scrums, with his trademark Wanganui jersey on, and take the fire out of the Southlanders. "There were a few squirmish looks when we read the headline in the Southland Times this morning," coach Guy Lennox said yesterday. "I don't know if our dear mayor has done us a huge amount of favours with this.

"So we might chuck Lawsie in the front row for the first five minutes."

On a more serious note, Lennox suggests Southland were "going to be highly motivated anyway, so I don't think it will make a huge difference, even though it might add a bit of an edge to them."

Footnote: Mr Laws says he was misquoted.

"Never called them poofs. They are huge men. But they are very ungenerous in not touring the Shield as other Shield holders have done with Heartland unions."

Mr Laws will be at the game.