Nickname(s) Harbour, Hibiscus Coach(es) Steve Jackson League Mitre 10 Cup | Region Blues Arena/Stadium North Harbour Stadium Founded 1985 | |
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Ground(s) North Harbour Stadium (Capacity: 25,000) 2016 3rd in Championship
Promoted to Premiership for 2017 Locations Waitakere City, New Zealand, North Shore, New Zealand, Rodney District, New Zealand Profiles | ||
The North Harbour Rugby Union (NHRU), commonly referred to colloquially as North Harbour or simply Harbour, is a provincial rugby team that was formed in 1985 by clubs that left the Auckland Rugby Union. It competes in the Mitre 10 Cup (known as the ITM Cup between 2010–2015), the successor to the country's former domestic competition, the National Provincial Championship (NPC).
Contents
Area
Harbour Rugby encompasses a geographical area that is situated in North Shore City, Rodney District and part of Waitakere City. 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.
Ranfurly Shield
After 10 previous unsuccessful challenges for the Ranfurly Shield, most notably 1996 when they challenged for it three times in 6 weeks against Taranaki, Waikato and Auckland, 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.
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. 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 an impressive 99–6 victory over Horowhenua-Kapiti.
After defeating Taranaki 19–13 in their first challenge in the Air New Zealand Cup, North Harbour lost the Ranfurly Shield to Waikato by a record margin of 52–7.
Representative rugby
Representative teams from North Harbour take part in both national and regional competitions. The North Harbour Senior side plays in the Mitre 10 Cup.
Apparel is supplied by Canterbury of New Zealand. Main sponsors are:
North Harbour in Super Rugby
As North Harbour is one of three provinces involved in the Blues franchise who play in the Super Rugby competition, their players are eligible to be picked by the Blues without relying on player drafting, thus, North Harbour players can be seen in Blues jerseys regularly also.
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; 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.
History
North Harbour was formed in 1985 by clubs that broke away from the Auckland Rugby Union. The first side chosen to represent the union was an under 20 side who played Felbridge, a touring side from Britain. Grant Ferguson had the honour of scoring 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 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 90's, and hosted the 1994 final at a capacity-crowd Onewa Domain against Auckland.
Onewa Domain, Northcote was the former home base for North Harbour rugby. North Harbour players play in the Super Rugby competition as part of the Auckland Blues partnership with the neighbouring Northland and Auckland unions. With the development of the North Harbour Stadium at Albany in the late 90's, 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 with a crushing 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 6th in the Championship, but nearly beat Southland 23–25 in a Ranfurly Challenge. 2012 and 2013 were disappointing years for North Harbour finishing last in the Championship with only one win to their seasons.
Club and high-school rugby
The club rugby season runs annually from March through to the beginning of August.
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
Current squad
The North Harbour squad for the 2016 Mitre 10 Cup was named on 22 July.
(c) Denotes team captain, Bold denotes player is internationally capped.
Coaches and management
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:
Mascot
The Harbour Master is the official Mascot for the North Harbour Rugby Union, He is dressed in a 'Captains' style suit with a large smiling head and carries with him at all times an oversized pair of binoculars. As with every year since his inception he has occupied his place on the sideline during Harbour home games.
2010 ITM Cup Appearances
2010 Television Appearances
Facts