New Zealand has more than 500 rugby clubs which makes selecting a 'First XV of classics', an endeavour sure to stir spirited discussion. Our selection criteria was based on All Blacks produced, championships won, history, uniqueness and rivalry.
We have tried to avoid, where possible, Marist clubs, High School Old Boys'
The First XV of classic New Zealand rugby clubs: Southern Rugby Football Club
AdvertisementAdvertise with NZME.
Week 2:
Petone Rugby Club
Manurewa Rugby Club
Glenmark Rugby Football Club
Week 3:
Ponsonby Rugby Club
Waitete Rugby Club
Morrinsville Rugby and Sports Club
By Christopher Reive
AdvertisementAdvertise with NZME.
Growing up, Laurie Mains had one great aspiration in his rugby career - to pull on the black and white hoops, wear the red number on his back and run out onto the turf at Dunedin's Bathgate Park as part of Southern's premier side.
In his youth, Mains joined the club because his father played there - once a Southern family, always a Southern family - and watched in awe of the senior team hoping to one day join the list of great players to come before him.
Born in 1899 from the marriage of the Caversham and Pacific football clubs, Southern has been a pillar of Dunedin's rich rugby history in its current form for 121 years (though its members include the years as Caversham and Pacific as part of their history. Their centenary and 125th celebrations were dated from 1884 which was when the two clubs formed). The Southern incarnation was born on April 21, 1899, and the senior side played its first game just a week later – beating University at their original home of Fraser's Paddock. The club relocated to Bathgate Park in South Dunedin in 1914.
University would become Southern's most historic and long-standing rival, and it was that rivalry that sparked Mains' career.
Upon completing his schooling at Kings High School, a developing ground for future Southern stars, Mains returned to the club in 1967 and got the opportunity to achieve his childhood goal - stepping into the fullback role vacated by club great Jimmy Darling. In his third game with the premier side, which saw Southern beaten soundly by University A, Mains went up against All Blacks Earle Kirton and Chris Laidlaw and admits Kirton "may have" caught him out of position a few times.
Asked to meet with legendary coach Vic Cavanagh the following Monday, Mains was given three pieces of advice that would ultimately change how he looked at the game.
"One of the first sentences he said to me was, 'You don't read the opposition enough to have the best field position you could have'," Mains recalls.
"To summarise what he told me, he said, 'You've got to study the people that are going to be kicking in your direction, and you've got to know by the way they're standing, before they kick the ball, you've got to know where they're going to kick so you can be more prepared and be in position. And you have to watch the halfback and the way he positions himself at the back of the scrum to see if he's going to box kick or pass'.
AdvertisementAdvertise with NZME.
"One of the other comments he made to me was, 'You have to know when your team is going to win the ball. When you see your player go into a tackle, you have to watch the first two support players in the ruck and know that you're going to get the ball. If you know you're going to get the ball, get yourself into that backline. If you're not sure, hold your position'.
"Those three things he told me started my whole career, not just as a player but as a coach. They taught me how to think about rugby; to be creative and innovative in my thinking."
Mains, who speaks about Southern with a glowing passion, went on to have a successful playing career for the club, Otago and the All Blacks - becoming known as one of the country's top positional fullbacks. After hanging up his boots, Mains found success as a coach at club, provincial and national level - leading the All Blacks into the 1995 Rugby World Cup.
In his three years coaching the top team at Southern (1980-82), he won the premiership title three times. He was the first coach since Cavanagh to achieve that feat.
"He played a large part in what I did in rugby," Mains says of Cavanagh. "Unfortunately Vic died before I completed that process [of title runs]."
Cavanagh and his father of the same name, often referred to as Young Vic and Old Vic respectively, are honoured each year when Southern and University meet, with the two teams playing for the Cavanagh Memorial Trophy.
First contested in 1958, the trophy recognises two greats of Dunedin rugby who had success coaching at University, Southern and Otago.
"If you can't win the championship banner, that is the next best trophy to have in the club," Southern club chairman Blair Crawford says.
The two clubs have had their fair share of winning both. Southern's 24 premiership banners are second only to University's 54. Southern's most recent title came in 2017.
There was a time when the annual fixture pitted the flashy University students and their quick backs against the working-class men of South Dunedin and their rugged forward pack. It was classic class warfare, with the students predominantly from middle-class backgrounds up against blue-collar factory workers and self-made men.
Posted by Southern RFC - The Magpies on Friday, 28 July 2017
Times have changed, and now Southern has plenty of students in their own squad.
The Cavanagh Memorial Trophy is one a number of traditions that give Southern its character. Its history as a family club has seen it thrive since the beginning; like Mains, Crawford became a Southern man because his father, Bob, was one.
Crawford first joined Southern as a seven-year-old in 1978, playing through until the under-13s grade, and re-joined the club in 1989 after his high school years at Kings High School.
"It was just what you did back then - play where your father did," Crawford says. "I actually lived 100m from Zingari-Richmond Rugby Club and a lot of my friends played up there but I was always going to be a Southern boy."
Southern has a strong juniors' programme which is very much part of the Saturday experience at Bathgate Park. The juniors take to the field from 10am, but have their player of the day awards just prior to the senior side's after-match at 5pm. For some, a Saturday can be spent entirely at the club, creating a strong family atmosphere.
In South Dunedin, the thirst for rugby is strong among young players, however Southern, like many clubs in the area, face a drop off in numbers when their junior players go and play for their high schools. Crawford says there is often good debate over clubs holding onto their players through those years rather than the schools.
It's a similar story in the women's game. Southern had a strong women's programme for some time, but waning interest and a rise in schoolgirl rugby in recent times meant the club couldn't sustain it.
"Schoolgirl rugby in high schools is growing down here, we just have to encourage these players to continue their careers into the Clubs. Like the men's game finding coaches and managers is an ongoing battle to foster this," Crawford says.
Crawford's return to the club after high school saw him soon became a pillar of the premier side through the 1990s, playing in 100 games for the club's first team.
Posted by Southern RFC - The Magpies on Saturday, 5 August 2017
While the professional game has all but put a stop to All Blacks rolling out for their clubs, Crawford says some of his best memories of his playing days come from the people he had the chance to play alongside or against.
"We had Jamie Joseph, Stu Forster, Stephen Bachop in our Southern team in the early days of the 90s and in the latter years Carl Hayman and Tom Willis. I got to play against the likes of Jeff Wilson, Mark Ellis, Josh Kronfeld and John Timu.
"For an average club player that I was, they are good memories to have and some the current player rarely gets."
