Ngati Porou East Coast Rugby Football Union


The Ngāti Porou East Coast Rugby Football Union is a constituent union in the New Zealand Rugby Union located on the East Coast of the North Island. Its provincial team plays in the Heartland Championship and its home ground is Whakarua Park, Ruatoria. It is the smallest Union in New Zealand in the sense of player numbers and population base.
The union was previously called East Coast. Due to the high number of players from the Ngāti Porou iwi, the team became known as Ngāti Porou East Coast and in August 2023 the Union was officially renamed the Ngāti Porou East Coast Rugby Football Union on the New Zealand incorporated societies register.
WWW npec.co.nz

History

The East Coast Rugby Football Union was formed in 1922 when they split from the Poverty Bay Rugby Football Union.
East Coast won the 2012 Heartland Championship Meads Cup defeating Wanganui 29–27 at Whakarua Park on 27 October 2012., In the 2022 Heartland Championship the team won the Lochore Cup beating Mid Canterbury by 25 to 20. They become the 6th team to have won both the Meads Cup and the Lochore Cup.
The team is renowned for losing 54 consecutive games over eight years. However former All Blacks Ma’a Nonu and Hosea Gear were involved in the side when they broke that drought in a 50-26 win over Buller in October 2021.

Clubs

Ngāti Porou East Coast Rugby Football Union is made up of 10 clubs:

National Provincial Championship

East Coast won the NPC 3rd Division twice. Firstly in 1999 defeating Poverty Bay 18–15 in the final at Ruatoria. Secondly and possibly even more impressively, defeating North Otago the following year in front of their home crowd at Oamaru in a come-from-behind 25–21 victory to record back to back NPC 3rd Division Championships.

1999 NPC 3rd Division champions

  • Overall Season standing: Champions

2000 NPC 3rd Division champions

  • Overall Season standing: Champions

Heartland Championship

2012 Meads Cup winners">2012 Heartland Championship">2012 Meads Cup winners

  • Overall Season standing: Champions

Ranfurly Shield

Ngāti Porou East Coast has challenged for the Ranfurly Shield eight times losing heavily on each occasion.

All Blacks

Six All Blacks have played rugby for East Coast:

Super Rugby

Ngāti Porou East Coast along with Waikato, Counties Manukau, King Country, Bay of Plenty, Taranaki, and Thames Valley make up the Chiefs Super Rugby region. Ngāti Porou East Coast was formerly part of the Hurricanes from 1996 until February 2025 where they announced their change of allegiance to the Chiefs.