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The Wellington Lions retained the Ranfurly Shield with record-breaking 90-19 rout of Wairarapa-Bush at Masterton's Memorial Park on Thursday.

The Lions, with 13 debutants in the ranks, ran in 13 tries over the Heartland Championship outfit as the 56-year Wellington record for most tries scored in a shield game was broken, eclipsing the 10 scored against East Coast in 1953.

Wellington were completely dominant in all areas with David Smith, fullback Jason Woodward and scrumhalf Anthony Bradshaw all crossed for braces, while Bush managed three tries through Duncan Law, Joe Feast and Nick Olsen surely earning themselves free drinks for the rest of the year.

"There's a lot of promise and depth in Wellington rugby at the moment and these guys were fairly hungry to go out and put on a good performance. I thought they did that," Joseph told the Dominion Post.

Wellington's next shield defence is away to another Heartland side, Wanganui, at Cooks Gardens next Thursday.

"Relief is the word for it, one behind me and just look to the future really," Wellington captain Scott Fuglistaller said. "Wanganui will be a step up so it's stepping stones to the Otago game [shield challenge in round one of the Air New Zealand Cup]."

A minute's silence was observed before kickoff to mark the recent passing of Robert Guildford, father of Hurricane Zac Guildford.