Regional rugby map

Regional rugby map

Map showing the boundaries and colours of the 26 regional rugby unions.

In 1879 the first provincial unions were formed in Canterbury and Wellington to administer rugby in their region. A number of other unions followed over the next decade or so. In 1892 a New Zealand Rugby Football Union (NZRFU) was formed to standardise the game around the country. Its foundation members were Auckland, Hawke’s Bay, Manawatu, Marlborough, Nelson, South Canterbury, Taranaki, Wairarapa, Wanganui and Wellington. The major South Island provincial unions – Canterbury, Otago and Southland – initially resisted the central authority of the NZRFU, but by 1895 all three had affiliated to it.

Other unions were created over time – some splitting off from parent unions that had got too large – while some smaller unions amalgamated. In 2015 there are 26 provincial unions in New Zealand, the newest being Tasman, which was created in 2006 as a merger between Nelson Bays and Marlborough.

Keywords

Community contributions

2 comments have been posted about Regional rugby map

What do you know?

Russell Preston

Posted: 26 Feb 2019

Has anyone answered Jon's question regarding the history of the colours of each union, ie what do the colours of a union represent? the answer does not need to be exhausitve!

jon

Posted: 20 Aug 2014

Does anyone know the history behind the colours, how they were chosen?