Taranaki Rugby Football Union

""'Rugby team
teamname = Taranaki Rugby Football Union


nickname = "Amber and Blacks"
founded = 1885
region = Taranaki
ground = Yarrow Stadium
capacity = 25,000
coach = flagicon|New Zealand Adrian Kennedy
captain = flagicon|New Zealand Tony Penn
chief executive =flagicon|New Zealand Mark Robinson
president =flagicon|New Zealand Neil Wolfe
league = Air New Zealand Cup
Best Result = 4th overall (1996, 1998) |
season = 2006
position = 3rd, Repechage B
season = 2007
position = Finished 8th overall
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pattern_la2=|pattern_b2=_thinblacksides|pattern_ra2=|leftarm2=FFFF00|body2=FFFF00|rightarm2=FFFF00|shorts2=000000|socks2=FFFF00

Taranaki Rugby Football Union (TRFU) is the governing body of Rugby in the New Zealand province of Taranaki. The main stadium is Yarrow Stadium which is in the main centre of New Plymouth. Since 2006 Taranaki has played in the annual Air New Zealand Cup in which it also competes for the Ranfurly shield, its last challenge being the unsuccessful attempt against North Harbour in Albany on Aug 4th 2007. Before 2006 the team competed in the National Provincial Championship (NPC), with its best finishes coming in 1998 and 2000 when they came fourth over all, both times being knocked out in the semifinals. Taranaki has won the NPC second division more than any other Union in New Zealand, a record that the club will keep now the NPC is defunct. Taranaki also plays for the Ryan Wheeler memorial trophy, a trophy played for annually with the Waikato Rugby Union.

History

The justification for marking the year 1885 as the Formation of the Taranaki Rugby Union is based not on the fact that the Union itself was created then, but because 1885 marked the first occasion on which Taranaki placed a touring team in the field, the Union was not actually established until 1889.

On 31 May 1898 the Hawera club convened a meeting at Hawera, of delegates from the Hawera, Waimate (Manaia), New Plymouth, Okaiawa, and Eltham clubs. This meeting agreed to form the Taranaki union. During the year Stratford and Midhirst clubs united as Manganui club, Tikorangi and Waitara clubs combined as Clifton club, and Inglewood and New Plymouth Star clubs were (among others) founded and became part of the union. By the turn of the century, 11 All Blacks were produced six of whom toured Great Britain in 1905.In 1956 they held the South African tourists to a 3-3 draw.

Match Centurions

Across Taranaki rugby history 31 players have now played 100 or more matches for the Taranaki union with the latest being Paul Tito who reached the milestone in the last match of the 2006 season.

The 31 players and the details are:

All Black captains

Reuben Thorne is the fourth old boy from New Plymouth Boys' High School to captain the All Blacks in a test match. Just one school, Southland Boys High School has produced more - with six.

New Plymouth’s four have been:

The Dean Cup

The Dean Cup is believed to be the oldest competition trophy still being played for in the sport of Rugby Union. Played for between three rural Taranaki clubs, Strathmore, Whangamomona and Toko, it was originally presented by Mrs Athalinda Dean in 1906 for a cricket match, however due to poor playing conditions this was canceled and a rugby match began the tradition in 1907.

In 2003 when Whangamomona challenged Strathmore for the cup and the game was played at Yarrow Stadium on April 19 as a curtain raiser to the Hurricanes Vs Highlanders Super 12 match. Strathmore were victorious, on this occasion, holding on to defended the cup and winning 17-16 in front of a capacity crowd. This is the first time that the Dean Cup has been played for outside of the Eastern Districts.

External links

* [http://www.trfu.co.nz Official Site]
* [http://www.TaranakiRRA.com Taranaki Referee Associations website]