Kaponga rugby score board

The scoreboard at Victoria Park, Kaponga.

After a couple of false starts a rugby club was finally established in the small central Taranaki settlement of Kaponga in 1907. The club has produced two born and bred heroes: Ian ‘Legs’ Eliason and Kieran ‘Colt’ Crowley. As well as having distinguished careers in the amber and black of Taranaki, both represented New Zealand. Eliason played a staggering 222 first-class games for his province between 1964 and 1981. This gave him a share of the New Zealand record for the most matches for a union (Taranaki credit him with 223 games by counting a non-first-class game). Crowley’s  1723 points is a record for Taranaki. The union credits him with 200 games for the ’Naki.

As the population in the region began to decline the Kaponga club merged with neighbours Eltham in the late 2000s.