Regional rugby

Established in 1985, North Harbour is one of New Zealand’s youngest provincial rugby unions. After joining the provincial rugby elite by winning promotion to the first division in 1987, North Harbour forged a reputation for playing attractive, running rugby.

As the Auckland metropolitan area spread north of the harbour bridge there was pressure to create a new union that would give players in the area a greater chance of becoming first-class representatives. The North Harbour Rugby Union covers the area bounded by the ‘three harbours’: Mahurangi, Waitematā and Kaipara. Harbour currently plays in the professional ITM Cup. Along with Auckland and Northland, it is part of the Blues Super Rugby franchise.

Ron Williams (1985–94) and Walter Little (1987–2000) both played 145 matches for North Harbour. Warren Burton (1990–96) scored a record 1052 points for the union.

Great moments in North Harbour rugby

North Harbour has never won the top division of New Zealand’s provincial championship. Between 1993 and 1995 Harbour made three consecutive first division semi-finals. In 1994 they overwhelmed Canterbury 59–27 to earn a home final against Auckland, to whom they had lost a semi-final match the previous year. Auckland prevailed 22–16 in a rugged match at Onewa Domain, Takapuna. This was a bitter pill to swallow for the Harbour players and supporters. For Auckland, it was as if the younger sibling had been put in his place. The intensity of this match helped to establish the ‘battle of the bridge’ in the national rugby calendar.

In 1996 North Harbour was part of one of the Ranfurly Shield's most unusual seasons when they found themselves challenging for the shield three times within six weeks. Auckland lost the shield to Taranaki in their third defence of the season. Harbour, Taranaki’s first challengers, were defeated 13–11. Taranaki were then beaten by Waikato in their next defence, and as luck would have it Waikato’s next home game (and automatic defence) was against Harbour. Once more Harbour came up just short, going down 17–14 in Hamilton. Almost unbelievably they were given a third crack at the prize when Auckland defeated Waikato. This time it was literally a bridge too far with Auckland winning convincingly, 69–27. 

North Harbour broke its shield hoodoo at the 11th attempt when they defeated Canterbury 21-17 in the final challenge of the 2006 season. Harbour’s hold on the shield in 2007 was all too brief. Their season began with big wins over teams from the second-tier domestic competition, the Heartland Championship. Thames Valley were dispatched 69–0 before Horowhenua-Kapiti were steam-rolled 99–6. The first serious opposition came in the form of Taranaki, who were defeated 19–13. In the next challenge things went horribly wrong. Harbour suffered the worst-ever defeat by a shield-holder, going down 52–7 to Waikato.

Buck Shelford