Regional rugby

King Country embodies the rural traditions that have become the backbone of grassroots rugby in this country. Its representative team plays in the semi-professional Heartland Championship, in which the top trophy is named after the union’s legendary Colin (‘Pinetree’) Meads, a personification of New Zealand rugby’s self-image. King Country has not yet won the Meads Cup, but in 2015 it won the Lochore Cup, which is contested by the fifth- to eighth-ranked Heartland teams. Along with Thames Valley, Bay of Plenty, Waikato, Taranaki and Counties Manukau, King Country is part of the Chiefs Super Rugby franchise.

The King Country Rugby Football Union was formed in 1922. An earlier attempt to form a Main Trunk Union involving a number of smaller sub-unions in the central North Island had failed to gain approval from the New Zealand Rugby Union. Over the next decade King Country grew by acquiring Kāwhia, Ōtorohanga and Kaitīeke. The Ruapehu sub-union centred on Ōhakune returned to its original parent union of Wanganui in 1970, but in 1987 the Taupo sub-union joined King Country from Hawke’s Bay.

Great moments in King Country rugby

Like many rural unions, King Country has struggled to attract and retain players in the professional era. King Country was promoted to the NPC’s first division in 1992 and managed to cling on to top-flight status until it was relegated at the end of the 1996 season. King Country’s fortunes then went into decline, and by the early 2000s the team found itself in the third division.