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Central Vikings Rugby Union was a
New Zealand New Zealand ( mi, Aotearoa ) is an island country in the southwestern Pacific Ocean. It consists of two main landmasses—the North Island () and the South Island ()—and over 700 smaller islands. It is the sixth-largest island count ...
rugby union Rugby union, commonly known simply as rugby, is a close-contact team sport that originated at Rugby School in the first half of the 19th century. One of the two codes of rugby football, it is based on running with the ball in hand. In it ...
team that played in the second division of the NPC for two seasons in 1997 and 1998. The team, formed from the merger of the
Hawke's Bay Hawke's Bay ( mi, Te Matau-a-Māui) is a local government region on the east coast of New Zealand's North Island. The region's name derives from Hawke Bay, which was named by Captain James Cook in honour of Admiral Edward Hawke. The region i ...
and Manawatu unions, featured current and future
All Blacks The New Zealand national rugby union team, commonly known as the All Blacks ( mi, Ōpango), represents New Zealand in men's international rugby union, which is considered the country's national sport. The team won the Rugby World Cup in 1987, ...
and a former All Black in coach Frank Oliver. It came second in its division in 1997, and first in 1998, and would have progressed to the first division. However, following financial trouble it split back into the two separate unions. Reviving the Central Vikings as a Super Rugby team was floated in 2016, but this did not occur.


History

The Central Vikings Rugby Union was founded in December 1996 with the merger of the
Hawke's Bay Hawke's Bay ( mi, Te Matau-a-Māui) is a local government region on the east coast of New Zealand's North Island. The region's name derives from Hawke Bay, which was named by Captain James Cook in honour of Admiral Edward Hawke. The region i ...
and Manawatu unions. The Vikings were formed with the hopes of lifting themselves out of the 2nd division and to be competitive in the 1st division. The Central Vikings had two
All Blacks The New Zealand national rugby union team, commonly known as the All Blacks ( mi, Ōpango), represents New Zealand in men's international rugby union, which is considered the country's national sport. The team won the Rugby World Cup in 1987, ...
in the team which included Bull Allen and
Christian Cullen Christian Mathias Cullen (born 12 February 1976) is a retired New Zealand rugby union player. He played most of his rugby at fullback for New Zealand (the All Blacks), for the Hurricanes in the Super 12, and for Manawatu, Wellington and later ...
as well as featuring various Super 12 players such as Chiefs star Mark Ranby who later became an All Black himself. The Central Vikings finished 2nd in 1997 when they were beaten 63–10 by Northland but even if they had won, they weren't allowed to progress into the 1st division. They finished 1st in 1998 when they beat Bay of Plenty. They were subsequently allowed to progress to the 1st division. The Vikings however got into financial trouble and they split back to
Hawke's Bay Hawke's Bay ( mi, Te Matau-a-Māui) is a local government region on the east coast of New Zealand's North Island. The region's name derives from Hawke Bay, which was named by Captain James Cook in honour of Admiral Edward Hawke. The region i ...
and Manawatu for the 1999 season. The Vikings were largely hindered in their second season after not only losing All Black legend Christian Cullen but also losing the then All Blacks Coach John Hart after Hart was advised he could not coach NPC, Super Rugby and All Black teams at the same time. Despite of these disadvantages the Vikings went on to win the second division and were picked to be a major force in the first division before financial problems prevented them from advancing and ultimately caused the end of the Vikings. With the announcement that New Zealand might receive a 6th Super Franchise in the SANZAR Super Rugby competition beginning 2016, the Hawke's Bay union announced its interest in forming this franchise together with Manawatu, effectively resurrecting the Central Vikings brand as a Super Rugby franchise. This never came to fruition and instead Super Rugby added the South African
Southern Kings The Southern Kings were a South African professional rugby union team that competed in Super Rugby and Pro14. They were based in Port Elizabeth in the Eastern Cape province and played their home matches at Nelson Mandela Bay Stadium. They we ...
, the Argentinian Jaguares and the Japanese Sunwolves.


Controversy

In December 1997 a special meeting of the Hawke's Bay Rugby Football Union was held to decide the future of the Central Vikings Rugby Union. Eight of the Hawke's Bay Union's 21 clubs called the meeting to seek agreement for Hawke's Bay to withdraw from the Vikings. A vote on a resolution calling for Hawke's Bay to withdraw from the combined Hawke's Bay–Manawatu team was lost, 7–12, in a secret ballot. Once the resolution was lost, HBRFU president Tom Mulligan said there was no reason for the meeting to continue. The Vikings were then given the all-clear to continue as an NPC second division rugby team.


Fixtures/Results


1997 Season

The Central Vikings played their first match against Fiji in Palmerston North on June 2, 1997. * Note - PS = Pre Season, NPC = National Provincial Championship * Overall Season standing: 2nd


1998 Season

Former Manawatu rugby captain and All Black trialist Andrew McMaster returned from Ireland, where he had four years coaching the Monkstown club, to join the Central Vikings as the new Vikings assistant coach. The Central Vikings had a non-championship match against Southland on 1 August 1998. Southland only just managed to hold on to the game, although they scored five tries to the Vikings two. Southland 31 (P Taylor 2, P Alatini, B Leckner, P Miller tries; A Kimura 3 cons) Central Vikings 29 (A Powdrell, D Bellamy tries; J Cunningham 2 cons, 5 pens). Halftime 19-13 to Southland. {, class="wikitable" , - bgcolor="#FFFFFF" , Date , Comp , Home team , Score , Away team , Score , - bgcolor="#FFFFFF" , 01-07-98 , PS , Central Vikings , 30 , New Zealand Marist XV , 29 , - bgcolor="#FFFFFF" , 01-08-98 , PS , Central Vikings , 29 ,
Southland Southland may refer to: Places Canada * Dunbar–Southlands, Vancouver, British Columbia New Zealand * Southland Region, a region of New Zealand * Southland County, a former New Zealand county * Southland District, part of the wider Southland Re ...
, 31 , - bgcolor="#FFFFFF" , 22-08-98 , NPC , Central Vikings , 79 , Wairarapa Bush , 12 , - bgcolor="#FFFFFF" , 29-08-98 , NPC , Central Vikings , 43 , Marlborough , 11 , - bgcolor="#FFFFFF" , 05-09-98 , NPC , Thames Valley , 5 , Central Vikings , 52 , - bgcolor="#FFFFFF" , 12-09-98 , NPC , Nelson Bays , 18 , Central Vikings , 34 , - bgcolor="#FFFFFF" , 19-09-98 , NPC , Central Vikings , 25 , Wanganui , 12 , - bgcolor="#FFFFFF" , 26-09-98 , NPC , Wairarapa Bush , 3 , Central Vikings , 55 , - bgcolor="#FFFFFF" , 03-10-98 , NPC , Bay of Plenty , 19 , Central Vikings , 37 , - bgcolor="#FFFFFF" , 10-10-98 , NPC , Central Vikings , 29 , King Country , 8 , - bgcolor="#FFFFFF" , 17-10-98 , NPC , Central Vikings , 23 , King Country , 20 ! Semi final , - bgcolor="#FFFFFF" , 24-11-98 , NPC , Central Vikings , 33 , Bay of Plenty , 18 ! Final * Note - PS = Pre Season, NPC = National Provincial Championship * Overall Season standing: 1st


Players

* Bull Allen * Mark Atkinson * Deryck Rowse * Stephen Bachop * Charles Beetham * Phonse Carroll * Brad Clarke * Orcades Crawford *
Christian Cullen Christian Mathias Cullen (born 12 February 1976) is a retired New Zealand rugby union player. He played most of his rugby at fullback for New Zealand (the All Blacks), for the Hurricanes in the Super 12, and for Manawatu, Wellington and later ...
* Jarrod Cunningham * Tom Deighton * Steve Fee * Greg Halford * Simon Halford * Tim Kareko * Jeff Karika * Lister Kire * Potu Leavasa * Danny Lee * Horace Lewis * Tony Maidens * Mutu Ngarimu * Brent Oliver * Murdoch Paewai * Mark Ranby * Roger Randle * Reece Robinson * Scott Waldergrave * Dion Waller * Dustin Watts ** Julian White was set to play in 1997 but was ruled out with a broken leg


Coaches

* Frank Oliver - 1997–98 (Coach) * Andrew McMaster - 1998 (Assistant Coach) * Mark Shaw - 1999 (Coach) Frank Oliver was the coach of the Central Vikings in the two seasons they played in the second division of the NPC 1997–98. In 1998 former Manawatu rugby captain and All Black trialist Andrew McMaster joined the Central Vikings as the Assistant coach, after four years of coaching the Monkstown club in Ireland. Former All Black and Manawatu flanker Mark Shaw was set to replace Frank Oliver as the head coach of the Central Vikings, however the Vikings split before playing in the 1999 season so Shaw did not coach them through the season.


Sponsors

* Lowe Walker (originally signed a three-year contract, however they left the Vikings during 1998) * Lion Red


References

* Highbeam Research
fijirugby.com
Rugby clubs established in 1997 Defunct New Zealand rugby union teams Defunct New Zealand rugby union governing bodies