It's hard to imagine Manawatū could be any more fired up for their Friday night clash.
The way Turbos captain Antonio Kiri Kiri sees it, the game was a thriller before the Ranfurly Shield was even thrown in the mix.
"We consider them pretty big rivals I guess. It's been a couple of years since we've beaten them, so I don't know if they see us as rivals at the moment, but we'll try and instil that again."
In Kiri Kiri's first season as captain, the Turbos got their season off to a near-perfect start with a come-from-behind win over Waikato.
Near-perfect, because lock forward Liam Hallam-Eames was subsequently handed a four-game ban for an ugly incident in the very first minute.
"He misjudged that one and we're probably lucky we didn't lose him in that first minute for a red card," Kiri Kiri said.
"He really let the team down there. But we've got players that can slot in and fill his spot for now."
That player is likely to be former Taranaki lock Brad Tucker, who would be making his first Mitre 10 start in green and white.
And in a bizarre twist, the Waikato player struck by Hallam-Eames just happened to be Brad's brother James.
"Obviously it's been brought up, but always light-hearted, and certainly there's no bad blood anywhere there," Tucker said.
"My brother definitely knows it's all part of rugby."
Tucker - who less than 12 months ago helped Taranaki lift the Ranfurly Shield off Canterbury - has no issue trying to strip it back off them.
"I couldn't have asked for a better scene to be set. Obviously pretty excited and looking to get one back on them and wrestle the shield back over here."
It's almost 40 years to the day since Manawatu last held the Ranfurly Shield but on top of the confidence last week's result has given them, there's even more good news for bucketheads with All Black Nehe Milner-Skudder still training with the Turbos.
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