Jonah Lowe of Hawke's Bay holds shield won on Saturday off Wellington. Photo: Elias Rodriguez / www.photosport.nz
New Zealand Rugby have re-taken possession of the Ranfurly Shield but do not anticipate testing the broken taonga for the presence of drugs.
The Ranfurly Shield was broken into two pieces in what has been described "an accident" by the Hawke's Bay Rugby Union after they lifted the Log of Wood with a 20-18 win over Wellington on Saturday.
New Zealand Rugby (NZR) is investigating after an image was shared on social media of white powder on a half of the broken Shield.
NZR general manager community rugby Steve Lancaster said NZR wasn't aware that the white powder was drugs.
"We are aware of images that are in circulation but we don't have any information or clarification about what has taken place so we have launched an investigation to ascertain exactly what has gone on but at this stage we're at the very early stages of that.
NZR did ask Hawke's Bay Rugby Union if drugs were involved. Lancaster said the response was there was "no awareness on anyone's part of anything illicit taking place is what we've been told".
Lancaster said drug testing was an employment matter so he would not disclose whether testing of the winning players had taken place.
Would NZR be testing the surface of the Shield for the presence of drugs?
"That's not something we've contemplated at this stage, I don't know if that would be feasible or not, but [the Shield] is making its way back to us at NZR now and we'll determine the next steps once we've got our hands on it," Lancaster said.
Hawke's Bay Rugby Union chief executive Jay Campbell said the Union was supporting the NZR investigation "as we work through what is fact and what is fiction."
"There is a lot of speculation of there and we just need to make sure that investigation goes through before we can confirm or comment [on drug use]," Campbell said.
NZR is "disappointed" to be faced with another situation of needing to fix the Shield after restoring it over the last 12 months but Lancaster didn't want to lock it away.
NZR general manager community rugby Steve Lancaster. Photo: Photosport
"We were very deliberate in commissioning the restoration that the Shield was put back into a condition where it was able to continue to circulate around our communities for another 100 years.
"Everybody that's had an association with the Shield has as a story about it, normally a personal story, I've had people send me photos in the last 24 hours of their parents holding the Shield that sort of thing so the fact that it has ended up in someone's kitchen isn't a problem what's happened to it is certainly a problem and that's what we want to get to the bottom of.
"We will certainly have to re-evaluate what the protocols are around the Shield. As of our most recent deliberations around the Shield, a little under a year ago, we were very deliberate in our view that it is a national treasure it is something that people cherish, that communities cherish and people should continue to have the opportunity to experience, touch and hold it so that remains our position for now but clearly we're going to have to re-evaluate our protocols around exactly what that means."
Lancaster said there were consequences for what had transpired over the last 24 hours.
"There are consequences for a range of different scenarios some of those are set out in the players collective employment agreement, we have relationship agreements with Provincial Unions but we haven't got that far down the track yet at the moment we are just trying to reestablish what's happened, what the damage is and we need to do to put the Shield right."
