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Northland Rugby Today
Northland is a passionate, Rugby loving region. It has more Rugby Clubs (55) than any other province and every Saturday in the winter months thousands of families descend on Rugby grounds throughout the region to enjoy our national game.
Sub-Unions and Clubs
Due to the large size of the Northland province, the Northland Rugby Union is currently divided into six sub-unions:
- Bay of Islands
- Hokianga
- Mangonui
- North Wairoa
- Otamatea/Rodney
- Whangarei City
Each sub-union represents the 55 registered Rugby clubs throughout the region.
Representative Rugby
Air New Zealand Cup
The representative team, called the Northland Taniwha, competes in the Air New Zealand Cup, the country's top-level professional competition, which replaced Division One of the National Provincial Championship. The union is based in Whangarei, where the Taniwha play their home fixtures at Okara Park, at which the new Northland Events Centre will open mid-2010. The Taniwha play in a predominantly Cambridge blue strip with dark blue trim.
Northland Taniwha brand
Super Rugby
Because the Northland union is linked with the Blues Super 14 franchise, Taniwha players are eligible for selection to the Blues without a drafting system or negotiations with other franchises.
Waikato Chiefs 1995-1998
In 1995, when NZRU were initially deciding the team compositions for the Super 12, it was decided it woul dbe unfair for the Blues franchise to encompass the North Harbour, Counties-Manukau, Northland and Auckland provincial rugby unions. This was due to the prevalence of All Blacks (players representing New Zealand) who came from North Harbour, Counties-Manukau and Auckland at the time. Therefore if the Blues were to consist of these unions, they would field an All Blacks team in all but name. This led to North Harbour and Northland being represented by the nearest other team, the Chiefs (at the time named the Waikato Chiefs).
Blues 1999-present
By the end of the 1990s the number of All Blacks from these unions had decreased. This led the Blues and the Chiefs to arrange a swap, where the Chiefs would represent Thames Valley and Counties-Manukau in exchange for the Blues representing Northland and North Harbour.
