Wellington Rugby Football Union

The Wellington Rugby Football Union (WRFU) is the official governing body of rugby union in the city of Wellington, the capital of New Zealand. Also the cities of Porirua, Upper Hutt and Lower Hutt come under WRFU jurisdiction.It was founded in 1879, making it the second oldest provincial union in New Zealand, with its 125th jubilee celebrated in 2004.

Super Rugby

Players from Wellington who are eligible to play in the Super 14 generally play for the Hurricanes, and traditionally contribute the core of the Hurricanes squad. This position is largely due to the Wellington basing of the Hurricanes. Further, Manawatu and Hawke's Bay, two Hurricane provinces and prolific talent producers, had long been mired in the second half of the National Provincial Championship, allowing Wellington to lure the better players of these provinces with ease (Christian Cullen from Manawatu for example). The reorganisation of provincial rugby in 2006 brought all three provinces and Taranaki into the top-level Air New Zealand Cup, now the ITM Cup, but Wellington have maintained their regional dominance.

Since Super Rugby's inaugural season in 1996 the Hurricanes have had positive results. They first reached the semi-finals in 1997 where they lost to the Australian side the ACT Brumbies. After a number of years they started to gain some consistency reaching the finals in four of six years, although falling one game short of the grand-final losing in the semis on both occasions to the Crusaders in...
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