The North Harbour Rugby Union (NHRU), commonly known as North Harbour or simply Harbour, is the governing body of

rugby union Rugby union football, commonly known simply as rugby union in English-speaking countries and rugby 15/XV in non-English-speaking world, Anglophone Europe, or often just rugby, is a Contact sport#Terminology, close-contact team sport that orig ...

that encompasses a wide geographical area north of

Auckland Auckland ( ; ) is a large metropolitan city in the North Island of New Zealand. It has an urban population of about It is located in the greater Auckland Region, the area governed by Auckland Council, which includes outlying rural areas and ...

that includes

North Shore City North Shore City was a territorial authority unit in the Auckland Region of New Zealand that was governed by the North Shore City Council. It existed from 1989 until November 2010, when the council was incorporated into Auckland Council. It ha ...

, Rodney District, the

Hibiscus Coast The Hibiscus Coast is a populated area on a stretch of the Hauraki Gulf coast in New Zealand's Auckland Region. It has a population of making it the List of New Zealand urban areas by population, 10th most populous urban area in New Zealand, ...

and part of

Waitakere City Waitakere City was a Territorial Authorities of New Zealand, territorial authority in West Auckland, New Zealand, West Auckland, New Zealand; it was governed by the Waitakere City Council from 1989 to 2010. It was New Zealand's fifth-largest ...

. There are 12 rugby clubs from Mahurangi RFC, based in Warkworth, Rodney District, in the north through to Massey the southernmost area of the union. The NHRU provincial rugby team that was formed in 1985 by clubs that left the

Auckland Rugby Union The Auckland Rugby Union is a New Zealand provincial rugby union. The union was established in 1883 and was originally responsible for the administration of the sport in most of the former Auckland Province, although its boundaries have since s ...

. It competes in the Mitre 10 Cup, the successor to New Zealand's former domestic competition, the National Provincial Championship (NPC).

History

North Harbour was formed in 1985 by clubs that broke away from the

. The

Hibiscus ''Hibiscus'' is a genus of flowering plants in the Malva, mallow family, Malvaceae. The genus is quite large, comprising List of Hibiscus species, several hundred species that are Native plant, native to warm temperate, Subtropics, subtropical ...

flower was chosen as the new union's logo in reference to part of the union's catchment area - the

. Since its foundation, the team doctor was Dr John Mayhew, until his death on 9 April 2025. The first side chosen to represent the union was an under 20 side who played Felbridge, a touring side from Britain. Grant Ferguson scored the union's first points via a penalty, with his captain, Alan McCulloch scoring the union's first try. The union expanded in 1989 when the Omaha, Warkworth and Kaipara Flats clubs merged to become the Mahurangi club and switched from the North Auckland union. North Harbour has enjoyed a great deal of success on the rugby field having produced

All Blacks The New Zealand national rugby union team, commonly known as the All Blacks, is the representative men's national team in the sport of rugby union for the nation of New Zealand, which is considered the country's national sport. Famed for th ...

and other New Zealand representative players, and also winning the 3rd division title in their first year, then promotion to NPC Division 1, and making the finals of the NPC competition on several occasions during the 1990s, including hosting the 1994 final at a capacity-crowd Onewa Domain against Auckland and qualifying for the Super 10 competition in 1993, 1994 and 1995. Harbour rugby logo

Onewa Domain, Northcote was the former home base for North Harbour rugby. North Harbour players play in the

Super Rugby Super Rugby is a men's professional rugby union club competition involving teams from Australia, Fiji, New Zealand, and the Pacific Islands. It has previously included teams from Argentina, Japan, and South Africa. Super Rugby started as the S ...

competition as part of the Auckland Blues partnership with the neighbouring Northland and

unions. With the development of the North Harbour Stadium at Albany in the late 1990s, this stadium became the home base of Harbour rugby. North Harbour play in the Mitre 10 Cup. In 2006 North Harbour were the first team to play the new Tasman Makos winning 33–27 in Blenheim. They would go on to win their next eight of ten games including an historical victory over Canterbury for the Ranfurly Shield. However they were beaten by Otago 21–56 in the quarter-finals. 2007 was a year of disappointment for North Harbour. Waikato claimed the Ranfurly Shield, winning 52–7 over the holders North Harbour. The team would only win four of ten matches including two draws to miss the playoffs. North Harbour won only three matches in 2008 finishing 12th. 2009 was the same with North Harbour finishing 12th, however they defeated the champions Canterbury 22–19 in the opening round and beat Auckland 16–14 at Eden Park. In 2010 North Harbour beat Japan 23–19 to start their 25th Jubilee Celebrations. However, the team managed only four wins to finish 11th. In 2011 the team finished sixth in the Championship, but nearly beat Southland 23–25 in a Ranfurly Challenge. 2012 and 2013 were disappointing years for North Harbour, as they finished last in the Championship with only one win. 2014 was less successful for North Harbour, as they only won three games, against Manawatu (24-13), Canterbury (29-24) and Hawkes Bay (28-25). 2015 seemed the same for North Harbour, they won 3 games again, against Southland (26-25), Counties Manukau (28-20) and Northland (36-12). 2016 saw North Harbour get promoted up from the Championship division, beating Counties Manukau (20-17), Manawatu (29-25), Southland (35-14), Bay of Plenty (44-34), and Northland (44-28),They defeated Wellington in the semi-final (40-37) and defeating Otago to be promoted to the 2017 Premiership (17-14) In 2017, North Harbour won a lot of their games, beating Otago (19-17), Southland (45-20), their greatest Battle of the Bridge win against Auckland (57-10), Counties Manukau (27-18), Northland (22-31), Hawke's Bay (33-30), Waikato (13-11), They made the semi-finals but did not beat Canterbury (35-24 loss) 2018 saw North Harbour beat Northland (21-20), Waikato (28-29), Bay of Plenty (32-30), Hawke's Bay (34-51), Taranaki (26-55), Counties Manukau (36-26).

Ranfurly Shield

North Harbour's first ten challenges for the Ranfurly Shield were unsuccessful, notably in 1996 when they challenged for it three times in 6 weeks against

Taranaki Taranaki is a regions of New Zealand, region in the west of New Zealand's North Island. It is named after its main geographical feature, the stratovolcano Mount Taranaki, Taranaki Maunga, formerly known as Mount Egmont. The main centre is the ...

Waikato The Waikato () is a region of the upper North Island of New Zealand. It covers the Waikato District, Waipā District, Matamata-Piako District, South Waikato District and Hamilton City, as well as Hauraki, Coromandel Peninsula, the nort ...

and

. North Harbour succeeded in their eleventh challenge for the shield on 24 September 2006 by beating the previous holders Canterbury 21–17 at Jade Stadium in

Christchurch Christchurch (; ) is the largest city in the South Island and the List of cities in New Zealand, second-largest city by urban area population in New Zealand. Christchurch has an urban population of , and a metropolitan population of over hal ...

. Under the rules of the Shield challenge, they had to defend the Shield before the 2007 Air New Zealand Cup season against teams in New Zealand's second tier domestic competition, the semi-professional

Heartland Championship The Heartland Championship is an annual Round-robin tournament, round-robin rugby union competition in men's domestic Rugby union in New Zealand, New Zealand rugby. First played in 2006, it is the third highest level of List of rugby union comp ...

. Accordingly, they scheduled defences against Thames Valley on 30 June 2007 and Horowhenua-Kapiti on 14 July. Harbour easily won their first defence 69–0 over Thames Valley, and followed it up two weeks later with a 99–6 victory over Horowhenua-Kapiti. After defeating

19–13 in their first challenge in the Air New Zealand Cup, North Harbour lost the Ranfurly Shield to

by a record margin of 52–7.

North Harbour in Super Rugby

North Harbour is one of three provinces included in the

Blues Blues is a music genre and musical form that originated among African Americans in the Deep South of the United States around the 1860s. Blues has incorporated spiritual (music), spirituals, work songs, field hollers, Ring shout, shouts, cha ...

franchise who play in the

competition; their players are eligible to be picked by the Blues without relying on ''player drafting''. At the beginning of Super Rugby, North Harbour was part of the Chiefs franchise as a combined team of Auckland and North Harbour was thought to be unfair by the

NZRU New Zealand Rugby (NZR) is the Sports governing body, governing body of rugby union in New Zealand. It was founded in 1892 as the New Zealand Rugby Football Union (NZRFU), 12 years after the first provincial unions in New Zealand. In 1949 it b ...

; Auckland and North Harbour collectively had a large percentage of the All Blacks of the time. Later however, North Harbour along with Northland were 'swapped' for Counties Manukau and Thames Valley, thus joined the Blues. Prior to the professionalisation of rugby, North Harbour competed as a stand-alone union in the predecessor to Super Rugby, the Super 10 competition, in 1993, 1994 and 1995.

Club and high-school rugby

The North Harbour Club Rugby season runs annually from March through to the beginning of August. The premier title is fought for among senior teams for the right to be crowned North Harbour Club Rugby Champions. The winner receives the ASB Cup. There are also 16 secondary schools fielding close to 100 teams within the North Harbour Region. Due to the ratio of secondary schools to rugby clubs, there is a strong relationship between the two.

Member clubs

* Mahurangi * Silverdale * Helensville
Kumeu (Riverhead)
* Massey
East Coast Bays RFC
* Glenfield * Northcote * Takapuna * North Shore * Marist * Royal New Zealand Navy

Club Champions

''For list of North Harbour club rugby champions, see'' North Harbour Club Rugby Champions

Bunnings NPC

Former players

These are players who have played for North Harbour in the past and have gone on to play international rugby and accomplish other feats as listed: * Todd Clever ( USA Eagles captain) * Liam Barry (former All Black, former Harbour Head Coach) * Richard Turner(former All Black) * Frano Botica (former All Black, former Kiwi League International and former Croatian International) * Frank Bunce (former All Black, Western Samoa centre, New Zealand Sevens) *Daniel Devereaux (former Cook Island half back) * Graham Dowd (former All Black hooker) * Nick Evans (former All Black, rumoured to move to North Harbour but moved to Auckland instead, now playing for Harlequins in England * Rico Gear (former All Black, now plays for Worcester Warriors) * Hosea Gear (now plays for Wellington) * Ian Jones (former All Black Lock) * Blair Larsen (former All Black forward) * Walter Little (former All Black second-five eight) * Jonah Lomu (former All Black wing, moved to Wellington, left Wellington due to illness and eventual kidney transplant) * Willie Losʻe (former Tongan international team captain and lock, now a TV & Radio personality) * Slade McFarland * Glen Osborne (former All Black fullback and Makakaho Rd Pig Hunting World Champion and

rugby sevens Rugby sevens (commonly known simply as sevens, and originally seven-a-side rugby) is a variant of rugby union in which teams are made up of seven players playing seven-minute halves, instead of the usual 15 players playing 40-minute halves. R ...

commentator) * Eric Rush (former All Black winger and Captain of NZ 7s * Buck Shelford (former All Black captain and former North Harbour coach) * Silao Leaega - Samoan International * Tevita Taumoepeau * Rua Tipoki (Captain 2005–06; first ever North Harbour captain to win Ranfurly Shield) * Tusi Pisi & George Pisi – Samoan internationals *

Mike Harris Michael Deane Harris (born January 23, 1945) is a retired Canadian politician who served as the 22nd premier of Ontario from 1995 to 2002 and leader of the Progressive Conservative Party of Ontario (PC Party) from 1990 to 2002. Taking the PC ...

(moved to Australia in 2011 and played for the

Queensland Reds The Queensland Reds is the rugby union team based in Brisbane for the Australian state of Queensland that competes in the Southern Hemisphere's Super Rugby competition. Prior to 1996, they were a representative team selected from the rugby union ...

and

Melbourne Rebels The Melbourne Rebels were an Australian professional rugby union team based in Melbourne, Victoria (state), Victoria that competed in the Super Rugby competition. The Rebels made their debut in SANZAAR, SANZAR's Super Rugby tournament in 2011. T ...

in the

competition and was capped ten times for the Qantas Wallabies. Now plays for

Lyons Lyon (Franco-Provençal: ''Liyon'') is a city in France. It is located at the confluence of the rivers Rhône and Saône, to the northwest of the French Alps, southeast of Paris, north of Marseille, southwest of Geneva, Switzerland, north ...

in France. * Francis Saili (former All Black second-five eight) *

Luke McAlister Charles Luke McAlister (born 28 August 1983 in Waitara, New Zealand, Waitara) is a retired New Zealand rugby union footballer. He played at Fly-half (rugby union), fly-half and at Centre (rugby union), centre. He is the brother of New Zealand w ...

(former All Black and currently playing for

Stade Toulousain Stade Toulousain () (), also referred to as Toulouse, is a professional rugby union club based in Toulouse, France. They compete in the Top 14, France's top division of rugby, and the European Rugby Champions Cup. Toulouse is the most successfu ...

) * Tony Woodcock (former All Black Two-time Rugby World Cup winner, scorer of only NZ try in 2011 final – most capped All Black prop)

Mascot

The Harbour Master is the official Mascot for the North Harbour Rugby Union, He is dressed in a naval captain's style suit with a large smiling head and carries with him at all times an oversized pair of binoculars. ''2010 ITM Cup Appearances'' * Harbour Vs Auckland 01/08 (Albany) * Harbour Vs Otago 19/08 (Albany) * Harbour Vs Waikato 04/09 (Albany) * Harbour Vs Manawatu 26/09 (Albany) * Harbour Vs Wellington 10/10 (Albany) ''2010 Television Appearances'' * This Given Sunday 12/09 (Rugby Channel – Sky TV, NZ) ''Facts'' * In 2008 The Harbour Master was involved in a tackle which resulted in the rival seagull mascot from Auckland breaking his leg. * Link https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OpHkT27mVMU * Photo http://www.harbourrugby.co.nz/mainmenu1/component/gallery/g98/QBE+Insurance+North+Harbour+vs.+Waikato+Sat+4+Sept/p899.html

References

External links

Official website

Facebook page
{{Sport in Auckland Rugby union teams in New Zealand New Zealand rugby union governing bodies Rugby union in the Auckland Region Sports organizations established in 1985 1985 establishments in New Zealand