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Mid Canterbury Rugby Football Union

Field	Value
clubname	Mid Canterbury
image	[[Image:Mid Canterbury Rugby Logo.png	120px	]]
fullname	Mid Canterbury Rugby Football Union
colours	Green and Yellow
founded	1904
league	Heartland Championship
ground	Ashburton Showgrounds
web	www.midcanterburyrugby.co.nz

The Mid Canterbury Rugby Football Union (MCRFU) is a rugby province in the South Island of New Zealand.

History

Main article: Ashburton County Rugby Union

The Mid Canterbury Rugby Football Union was formed in 1904 as Ashburton Country, first as a sub-union of the South Canterbury Rugby Football Union and then of the Canterbury Rugby Football Union. The union gained full status in 1927, and changed its name to Mid Canterbury in 1952.

Clubs

Mid Canterbury Rugby Football Union is made up of 9 clubs:

Allenton
Celtic
Collegiate
Hampstead
Methven
Mount Somers
Rakaia
Southern
Tinwald

The Senior Club Champions in recent years were:

2023 Celtic
2024 Southern
2025 Celtic

Provincial representative rugby

The Mid Canterbury team play from Ashburton Showgrounds, Ashburton.

National Provincial Championship (NPC)

In the NPC Mid Canterbury won:

the 2nd division South Island in 1980 and 1983
the 3rd division in 1994 and 1998.

Heartland Championship

In the Heartland Championship which commenced in 2006 Mid Canterbury have won:

the Meads Cup in 2013 and 2014
the Lochore Cup in 2017.

Year	Pld	W	D	L	PF	PA	PD	BP	Pts	Place	Playoffs	Qual
8	4	0	4	155	178	−22	3	19	4th	Meads Cup	Lost 17–30 to Wanganui	—
8	6	0	2	213	151	+62	4	28	2nd	Meads Cup	Lost 0–18 to Wanganui	—
8	7	0	1	225	129	+96	5	33	2nd	Meads Cup	Won 38–24 against North Otago	Lost 12–27 to Wanganui
8	7	0	1	196	133	+63	2	30	1st	Meads Cup	Won 19–17 against South Canterbury	Lost 13–34 to Wanganui
6	5	0	1	179	94	+85	5	25	2nd	Meads Cup	Lost 24–40 to North Otago	—
8	6	0	2	180	143	+37	6	26	4th	Meads Cup	Lost 22–32 to Wanganui	—
8	3	0	5	158	162	−4	5	17	7th	Lochore Cup	Lost 20–48 to South Canterbury	—
8	7	0	1	232	131	+101	5	33	1st	Meads Cup	Won 28–25 against West Coast	Won 26–20 against North Otago
8	5	1	2	258	139	+119	4	26	3rd	Meads Cup	Won 29–22 against Poverty Bay	Won 36–13 against Buller
8	7	0	1	295	228	+67	6	34	2nd	Meads Cup	Lost 11–26 to Wanganui	—
8	5	0	3	278	198	+80	7	27	5th	Lochore Cup	Lost 24–36 to North Otago	—
8	5	0	3	275	224	+51	3	26	1st	Meads Cup	Won 56–22 against Poverty Bay	Won 47–15 against West Coast
8	3	0	5	225	233	−8	7	19	8th	Lochore Cup	Lost 24–34 to Horowhitu-Kapiti	—
8	1	1	6	161	236	−75	4	10	11th	No	—
8	5	0	3	226	209	+17	4	24	6th	No	—
8	3	0	5	214	249	−35	6	18	8th	Lochore Cup	Won 31–15 against North Otago	Lost 20–25 to Ngati Porou East Coast
8	2	0	6	221	245	−24	8	16	9th	No	—
8	6	0	2	297	215	+82	6	30	4th	Meads Cup	Won 17–16 against South Canterbury	Lost 29–37 to Thames Valley

There was no Heartland Championship in 2020 due to Covid 19 restrictions.

Hanan Shield

The Hanan Shield is one of the most prestigious trophy in New Zealand's domestic rugby union competition. First played for in 1946, the Hanan Shield is based on a challenge system played between North Otago, South Canterbury and Mid Canterbury.

Ranfurly Shield

Mid Canterbury have never held the Ranfurly Shield. Unsuccessful challenges include:

Jared Page Maama Vaipulu John Tu'ugafasi Toni Pulu Andy Muirhead

Shannan Chase Tony Lamborn Brendon O'Connor Zac Guildford Ryan Tongia Ihaia West

All Blacks

There have been 3 players selected for the All Blacks whilst playing their club rugby in Mid Canterbury.

Denis Cameron: All Black number 614, who played 8 games as a wing on the 1960 New Zealand rugby union tour of Australia and South Africa.
Grant Perry: All Black number 813, who played 1 game as a hooker on the 1980 tour to Fiji.
Jock Ross: All Black number 830 who played 5 games as a lock on the 1981 tour to France and Romania

Super Rugby

Mid Canterbury along with Canterbury, Tasman, Buller, South Canterbury and West Coast make up the Crusaders Super Rugby franchise.

References

(1966). "An Encyclopaedia of New Zealand". Ministry for Culture and Heritage.
"Stuff".
"Standings (2006–present)". [[Heartland Championship]].
"Fixtures and Results (2006–present)". [[Heartland Championship]].
(23 October 2010). "Finalists found in Lochore and Meads Cups". [[Newshub (New Zealand).
(31 October 2010). "2010 Lochore and Mead Cups finals wrap". [[Heartland Championship]].
"Denis Cameron".
"Grant Perry".
"Jock Ross".

Wikipedia Source

This article was imported from Wikipedia and is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Content has been adapted to SurfDoc format. Original contributors can be found on the article history page.

rugby-union-teams-in-new-zealand new-zealand-rugby-union-governing-bodies sports-organizations-established-in-1904 1904-establishments-in-new-zealand sport-in-ashburton,-new-zealand rugby-union-in-the-canterbury-region

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