Stokes Valley Rugby Football Club (SVRFC) is a

rugby union Rugby union, commonly known simply as rugby, is a Contact sport#Terminology, close-contact team sport that originated at Rugby School in the first half of the 19th century. One of the Comparison of rugby league and rugby union, two codes of ru ...

club based in

Stokes Valley Stokes Valley, a major suburb of the city of Lower Hutt in the North Island of New Zealand, lies at the edge of the city, seven kilometres northeast of the city centre. It occupies the valley of a small tributary of the Hutt River, called Stoke ...

, a suburb of the

Hutt Valley The Hutt Valley (or 'The Hutt') is the large area of fairly flat land in the Hutt River, New Zealand, Hutt River valley in the Wellington Region, Wellington region of New Zealand. Like the river that flows through it, it takes its name from Sir ...

New Zealand New Zealand ( mi, Aotearoa ) is an island country in the southwestern Pacific Ocean. It consists of two main landmasses—the North Island () and the South Island ()—and over 700 List of islands of New Zealand, smaller islands. It is the ...

. The club was formed in early 1949, during the post-war era of increased settlement in the Hutt Valley. The club started with one team in the Junior 2nd grade, and gained senior status in 1964. The club continued to build in playing numbers until it reached a peak of 11 teams in 1991. In that year, the club's top side defeated University to win promotion to the Senior 1 grade, which was renamed the Premier grade in 1992. The club held Premier status for four seasons before being relegated during a competition restructure and reduction of the Premier grade from 16 teams to 12. During that time, it played in the 1993

Hardham Cup Hardham is a small village in the Horsham District of West Sussex, England. It is on the A29 road southwest of Pulborough. It is in the civil parish of Coldwaltham. Archaeology The village is on the line of Stane Street Roman road, which chan ...

final, losing to Petone at Athletic Park. Its sole senior success since then has been winning the Senior 1st Ed Chaney Cup in 2008. However, the club's playing numbers have dwindled since the heights of 1991 and it now has only two teams in WRFU competition; the senior side is in the third-tier Senior 2 grade (having been relegated from Senior 1 in 2010) and an Under 85kg restricted side, plus a Presidents grade team. The club is based at Delaney Park in Stokes Valley itself, and its playing colours are red and yellow hooped jerseys and socks with black shorts.

References

{{Reflist Rugby union teams in New Zealand 1949 establishments in New Zealand Rugby clubs established in 1949 Sport in Lower Hutt