The North Harbour Rugby Union Team was formed in 1985 to compete in the National Provincial Cup. The team home ground is North Harbour Stadium, a new 25,000 capacity stadium in Albany, on Auckland’s North Shore. Harbour Rugby encompasses a geographical area that is situated in North Shore City, Rodney District and part of Waitakere City.
Colours and Logo
North Harbour play their games in sa trip of black and rusty red, or white and black with splashes of red. The club logo is the word Harbour with greay, red and black lettering split by a yellow arc and the word rugby in an ellipse underneath. The colours have been pulled on by some greats in the game such as: Kevin Borovich, Frano Botica, Frank Bunce, Nick Evans, Rico Gear, Ian Jones, Blair Larsen, Walter Little, Glen Osborne, Eric Rush, Kevin Senio, Buck Shelford and Jonah Lomu.
Honours – Ranfurly Shield & NPC
After 10 previous unsuccessful challenges for the Ranfurly Shield, most notably 1996 when they challenged for it three times in 6 weeks against Taranaki, Waikato and Auckland, North Harbour succeeded in their eleventh challenge for the shield on 24 September 2006, beating holders Canterbury 21-17 at Jade Stadium in Christchurch. After a short tenure they lost the shield to Waikato. They played a famously heated NPC final against Auckland in the early 90’s which was marred by a number of foul-play incidents and several all in brawls, as the passion of the ‘Battle of the Bridge’ came bubbling to the surface.
ITM Cup 2012 Preview
North Harbour will compete in the second tier of the ITM Cup, the Championship, in 2012. As part of the Blues franchise, who endured their worst season in Super Rugby history, there will be plenty of North Harbour players keen to make amends. Some key players as they strive to win promotion to the premiership include Michael Hobbs, Ben Afeaki, Francis Saili, and Rudi Wulf.