The Hawke’s Bay Magpies rugby team has a press conference scheduled for 11.30am, as questions and outrage continues to bubble about the broken Ranfurly Shield.

New Zealand Rugby has started an inquiry amid revelations the shield won’t be locked away in the Hawke’s Bay Rugby Union cabinet for the summer.

Hawke’s Bay Rugby chief executive Jay Campbell confirmed the trophy, broken in two after an incident at a player’s flat on Sunday morning - described as a drop onto a concrete kitchen floor - had been taken by a staff member back to Wellington on Monday.

Hawke’s Bay Magpies vice-captain Brad Weber said the players were inside when the shield dropped.

He said he wasn’t there when the shield was dropped and damaged.

“I fully trust what they say.”

He wouldn’t speculate on what white substance was photographed on the shield.

Weber said a NZ Rugby investigation was ongoing and he wouldn’t be speculating.

Head coach Brock James said drug testing of the team was up to NZ Rugby.

“It is done randomly throughout the year by NZ Rugby.”

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James said the disciplinary action will be left to NZ Rugby.

“Our focus is getting ready for the game.”

James said he was very disappointed that the shield was broken, considering how much work they put into winning it.

“It was an accident.”

Weber said that once the shield was fixed he hoped they could bring it back to the community.

“We know the respect that it holds and we’re devastated that it happened.

“We really want to win the respect back of the people that we’ve hurt,” said Weber ahead of this week’s match.

When asked about one of his team members being charged for drink driving, Weber said considers these team members as family, so he will be there for that player like anyone else would.

With the issues now in the hands of an NZR-appointed independent investigator, the shield pieces are now being prepared for repairs but won’t be back in the Bay for the celebrations of the type which followed the three other successful challenges in the last decade and the win that started the three years of mainly sun-drenched shield fever in 1966-1969.

“It’s bloody disappointing,” Campbell said, reiterating that in keeping with the traditions of the shield the union would have wanted to show the shield to the community at every opportunity.

He said he “understands the reasons” but it was something the players have to accept “as a consequence of their actions”.

At present, the union regards as “speculation” conjecture over “white powder” pictured on one half of the broken shield, but as much as the public wants answers it also wants to know exactly what’s happened, a result it hopes will be provided by the investigation.

Hawke’s Bay Today understands there were people other than team members among those at the house.

The team is due to play an NPC quarter-final against Bay of Plenty in Tauranga on Sunday.

“The (NZR) investigation has already started, but the team has trained today (Tuesday) and has to now be 100 per cent focussed on this game,” he said.

“We want answers as much as everyone else,” he said, reiterating players and staff are “devastated” by what has happened. “People might think we’re trying to brush it under the carpet - far from it.”

An image was shared with what appears to be a white powder on the broken Ranfurly Shield. 

New Zealand Rugby sent a statement on Tuesday confirming it would appoint an independent investigator “as part of this and they will look to establish the facts relating to the substance.

“As part of the investigation, we also expect that the facts around how the Shield was cared for to be established.”

Conjecture continues about the powdery substance on the Shield, with its recent renovator James Dwan speculating yesterday that it could have been plaster placed under the Shield’s badges during the restoration.

Hawke’s Bay Rugby has also been dealing with the fallout of an alleged drink-drive crash by one of its players into a suburban Napier fence, thought to have also occurred during revelry on Sunday night and Monday morning.