Canterbury embarked on their 12th Ranfurly Shield reign by comfortably repelling Hawke's Bay's latest challenge for rugby's iconic trophy 44-6 in Christchurch tonight.
A pale and error-prone imitation of the side that lifted the iconic trophy in Hamilton last weekend until a late scoring spree, unbeaten Canterbury were never in danger of inheriting the ignominy of the shortest ever reign in the 105 year history of the shield six days after their emphatic victory over Waikato.
But they will be thankful for not encountering an opponent capable of punishing their unusually high error rate, particularly during a patchy first period.
They got their act together after halftime, however, scoring three tries in the last 10 minutes to inflate the margin in the seventh round Air NZ Cup opener at AMI Stadium.
Ironically for all the mistakes that pock marked competition-leading Canterbury's first half performance, it was their ability to capitalise on two Hawke's Bay blemishes that enabled them to finally dust off their shield-winning hangover.
For all the Magpies' endeavour Matt Berquist's inability to find touch from a defensive penalty proved the catalyst for a classic counter attacking try for Hamish Gard in the 29th minute.
Scott Hamilton fielded the errant kick, and 30 seconds later Gard forced the ball in the right hand corner after good lead up work from Corey Flynn, Mose Tuiali'i and Rico Gear, who committed two defenders before hooping the ball to Gard.
Six minutes later a knock-on by Lua Lokotui at the base of a defensive ruck was snaffled by flanker Kieran Read who put Brett over for a simple try to extend the margin to 15-3.
Hawke's Bay rarely posed a threat to the Canterbury line though they had one unfortunate outcome in the 37th minutes when wing Jason Kupa was denied a try by a coat of sideline paint when he crossed in the tackle of Casey Laulala.
Television match official Mike Fraser correctly judged the wing scraped the touchline before he touched down -- and the Magpies' 10th challenge since they last held the shield in 1969 steadily petered out.
Ahead 15-6 at the break, Canterbury's superior skills and greater impact from the bench -- where second rower Michael Paterson made an impressive contribution in the second spell -- were enough to put away the third-placed Magpies with relative ease, although the underdogs were in range until the final quarter.
Gard, who deputised for Brett after he missed two of his first three attempts, added a handy, stress-relieving three-pointer to give Canterbury an 18-6 buffer in the 52nd minute, underlining the respect the hosts held for Hawke's Bay.
The Canterbury juggernaut finally rumbled into life in the final quarter with wing Paul Williams dotting down an audacious Paterson kick ahead from a scrum turnover before Brett ghosted through a gap to secure the bonus point in the 70th minute.
Issac Ross then pounced on an intercept pass from halfback Danny Lee to lope over under the posts before the mobile second rower popped up a pass for Rico Gear to add Canterbury's sixth in the final minute.
Brett took back the kicking tee for the last three tries and converted them all to bring up 100 points for the season.
Canterbury's next defence is against Auckland on September 29.
Fulltime score from the seventh round Air NZ Cup/Ranfurly Shield match between Canterbury and Hawke's Bay in Christchurch tonight.
Canterbury 44 (Stephen Brett 2, Hamish Gard, Paul Williams, Issac Ross, Rico Gear tries; Brett pen 3 con; Gard pen con), Hawke's Bay 6 (Matt Berquist 2 pen). Halftime: 15-6