ABOUT US

OUR UNION

Welcome to Ngati Porou East Coast Rugby Football Union – the only one of its kind in the entire country that is iwi based. We take immense pride in our culture and the game of rugby, which binds us together from the heart of our homes to the far reaches of the nation and even overseas.

Ngati Porou East Coast Rugby Football Union is a constituent union of NZR, located on the East Coast of the North Island, based in Ruatoria at Whakarua Park. We are the smallest Union in New Zealand in the sense of player numbers and population base, but the passion and heart of rugby is unmatched. 

OUR HISTORY

In 2001 East Coast, New Zealand’s smallest rugby  union, captured the hearts of rugby supporters throughout the land with a fairytale run to the final of Division Two of the NPC. While the resident  population of the East Coast is small, its rugby team is able to draw on the  support of nearly 100,000 people of  Ngati Porou descent scattered across the country. During the team’s dream run in  2001 many of these supporters returned to Ruatoria to cheer on Ngati Porou East Coast at Whakarua Park. Some saw East Coast’s secret weapon as its ‘whanau spirit’. Orcades  Crawford, the Coast’s inspirational prop forward, added that ‘when you put on a sky blue  jersey it’s totally different to anything else – it’s probably better than the All Blacks [jersey]’.

The East Coast Rugby Football Union was  established in 1922 and joined the national body a year later. Always  considered to be one of the minnows of New  Zealand rugby, East Coast currently competes in the  Heartland Championship, a competition for New Zealand’s amateur and  semi-professional provincial unions. Along with Taranaki, Wanganui, Poverty Bay, Hawke’s Bay, Wairarapa Bush, Manawatu, Horowhenua-Kapiti and Wellington, East Coast is part of the Hurricanes Super Rugby franchise.

GREAT PLAYERS

Despite its small size, East  Coast can lay claim to one of the all-time greats of New Zealand rugby: George Nepia. He and Andy Jefferd (1980–81) have been the Coast′s only All Blacks. Both first came to prominence while playing for larger unions.

At the age of 19 Nepia was one of the stars of the 1924–25 All Blacks,  dubbed ‘the Invincibles’. The only fullback selected, he played in all 32 matches on the  team’s tour of the British Isles, France  and Canada.  His performances prompted a leading British journalist to  write, ‘it is not for me a question of whether Nepia was the best fullback in  history. It is a question of which of the others is fit to loose the laces of  his Cotton Oxford boots’. But after that four-test tour, Nepia only played another five test matches for the All Blacks, four of them against the 1930 British Lions. One reason was his non-selection, on racial grounds, for the 1928 tour to South Africa. He was also  restricted by injury and illness and was unavailable for several tours. His  status in New Zealand  rugby was best demonstrated in the mid-1980s  when – more than 50 years after his  last All Black game – he was the subject of a widely viewed This Is Your  Life television programme.

Morgan Waitoa with 114 games holds the record for the most appearances for East Coast. Eli Manuel scored a record 400 points between 1985 and 1996.