Ponsonby District Rugby Football Club is a

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 ...

club based in

Auckland Auckland (pronounced ) ( mi, Tāmaki Makaurau) is a large metropolitan city in the North Island of New Zealand. The most populous urban area in the country and the fifth largest city in Oceania, Auckland has an urban population of about ...

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 ...

. The club was established in 1874 and is affiliated with the

Auckland Rugby Football Union The Auckland Rugby Union is a New Zealand provincial rugby union. The union was established in 1883 and was originally responsible for the administration of the sport in most of the former Auckland Province, although its boundaries have since ...

. Ponsonby is the oldest extant member of the Auckland union, and the second oldest club in the Auckland region, after North Shore, who are now affiliated with the

North Harbour Rugby Union The North Harbour Rugby Union (NHRU), commonly known as North Harbour or simply Harbour, is the governing body of rugby union that encompasses a wide geographical area north of Auckland that includes North Shore City, Rodney District, the Hibis ...

. The men's premier team have won the Auckland Premier competition a record 45 times, including 33 times since the introduction of the Gallaher Shield, itself named after Ponsonby stalwart

Dave Gallaher David Gallaher (30October 1873 – 4October 1917) was an Irish-born New Zealand rugby union footballer best remembered as the captain of the " Original All Blacks"—the 1905–06 New Zealand national team, the first representative New Zealan ...

. Ponsonby have dominated the Auckland competition in recent years, having been champions on eight consecutive occasions between 2004 and 2011. The club has produced numerous

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, ...

, the most recent being Rieko Ioane.

Honours

Auckland Championship/Gallaher Shield (46): 1883, 1884, 1885, 1887, 1890, 1891†, 1897, 1908, 1909, 1910, 1913, 1924, 1925, 1926, 1927, 1929, 1930, 1933‡, 1936, 1937, 1938, 1948, 1954, 1976, 1978, 1979, 1981, 1983, 1985, 1986, 1988, 1990, 1993, 1995, 2001, 2002, 2004, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2008, 2009, 2010, 2011, 2018, 2019 *Notes: † – Shared with Parnell. *Notes: ‡ – Shared with Marist and

University A university () is an institution of higher (or tertiary) education and research which awards academic degrees in several academic disciplines. Universities typically offer both undergraduate and postgraduate programs. In the United States ...

References

External links

Club website
{{Rugby union in Auckland Sport in Auckland New Zealand rugby union teams Ponsonby RFC players Rugby union in the Auckland Region