Regional rugby map

Map showing the location and colours of the 26 regional rugby unions.

In 1879 the first provincial unions were formed in Canterbury and Wellington to administer and control the playing of rugby in their region. A number of other unions followed over the next decade or so. In 1892 a New Zealand Rugby Football Union (NZRFU) was formed to standardise the game around the country. Its foundation members were Auckland, Hawke’s Bay, Manawatu, Marlborough, Nelson, South Canterbury, Taranaki, Wairarapa, Wanganui and Wellington. The major South Island provincial unions – Canterbury, Otago and Southland – initially resisted the central authority of the NZRFU, but by 1895 all three had affiliated to it.

Other unions were created over time – some splitting off from parent unions that had got too large – and some smaller unions amalgamated. In 2010 there were 26 provincial unions in New Zealand, the most recent being Tasman, which was created by the merger of Nelson Bays and Marlborough.