Contributors: Dylan Cleaver, Bruce Holloway, Jim Kayes, Joel Kulasingham, Patrick McKendry, Chris Rattue, Chris Reive, Scotty Stevenson, Brian Ashby and Liam Napier.
Editor: Steve Holloway
Design: Paul Slater

New Zealand has more than 500 rugby clubs. There used to be a lot more.

Every small town in New Zealand was once defined by its school, hall, store and its rugby club but it’s getting harder out there.

Squeezed from the top by the three levels of the professional game – test, Super Rugby and the national provincial championship – and no longer serviced in great numbers by the school game, clubs are fighting a battle not just for relevance, but survival.

Yet if you were searching for rugby’s soul you’d start on the sidelines of a classic club rivalry. It might be University v Southern in Dunedin, or Inglewood v Stratford in Taranaki heartland. It doesn’t matter where really – it’s here you’ll find the essence of the game the early settlers took to heart.

It also makes it bloody hard to narrow this list down to a 1st XV of classic clubs. Our selection criterion was based on All Blacks produced, championships won, history, uniqueness and rivalry, but there is an unashamedly arbitrary element to it.

Why pick Petone, for example, over Poneke? Well that’s a very good question and one that possibly cannot be answered satisfactorily if you have a red-and-black hooped jumper in your bottom drawer. Jim Kayes might not be able to convince you to love Petone, but after you’ve read his piece on the club, you’ll have a better idea as to why it’s a classic.

Likewise Chris Rattue’s story of the mighty Ponsonby Ponies; or Scotty Stevenson’s paean to Mid-Northern.

We have tried to avoid, where possible, Marist, Old Boys and Varsity clubs because they represent big institutions (the Catholic church; traditional single-sex state education networks; universities) rather than community, but a couple have forced their way in because they stand as unique even within those parameters.

(The clubs' listed All Blacks are only those who first made the national team from that club.)

We expect our selection to stir debate. In the meantime, scroll through these 15 classic clubs whose battle for local supremacy remains as urgent as ever.

- Dylan Cleaver

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