Ponsonby Rugby Club

It was inevitable that after Ponsonby’s extraordinarily long winning streak which produced ten Gallaher Shields in 11 years there would be a reaction, and so it proved with a few less than memorable years in the middle-2010s. Back-to-back championships in 2018 and 2019 aid Ponsonby was moving again, but then a series of misfortunes derailed that progress.

Covid – and we all remember how much that affected life – wrecked 2020. Its lingering after-effects were still being felt a year later; 2022 was a year of progress but then we had the catastrophic rain and associated flooding of Anniversary weekend in 2023 to throw the club under another bus, this one with a very wet undercarriage.

As happened in 1974 and 1999, marking another milestone anniversary in club history keyed a positive force which became nearly unstoppable within two years. In 1976 we celebrated our first Gallaher Shield for 22 years, while in 2001 we won the first of those 11 crowns. We didn’t have to wait two years for the next one; Ponsonby won the Gallaher and Coleman Shields in both 2024 and 2025, something no other club had ever done once, and they were joined in the winner’s circle by the Under-21s in both 2025 and 2026.

Throw in a championship for the Fillies Development team in 2026, and you can see the premier teams (who only lost three matches between them in 2026 despite no titles) are firing and the feeder lines are open again in classical style. Ponsonby remains the club the others need to emulate and, with Auckland rugby falling off its pedestal of late, it also has a responsibility to act as trailblazer. While being a heavy burden, it’s one the club knows it can carry.

On the home front the battle for Western Springs was more or less resolved when, after a public consultation process, it was clear that the Auckland FC bid did not have the backing of anything like a majority of respondents and the club withdrew its expression of interest, leaving only the joint Ponsonby - Eccles Entertainment-CRS Records bid on the table. When Tataki Auckland Unlimited, the stadium authority, suggested they would look around and see if there were any other interested parties, it was just as firmly suggested back that others had their chances and it was about time they dealt with the only interested party left in the contest. In the year and change since the process was resolved it seems progress is being made and certainly the hosting of the NPC match between Auckland and Wellington in 2026 is a positive marker for the future. While a permanent deal hasn't been inked in 2026 the club's lease was extended by five years, which gives everyone a chance to move forward.

And some good news for these pages to finish. Finally, after years of neglect, record keeping and women’s rugby can be used in the same sentence. While there are still gaps – a lot of unattributed points, for example, thanks to team lists having several players named ‘Player name withheld’, a fairly decent ARU file from 2019 is available. Jenny Sheehan, who managed the Fillies for several years, did a sterling job for the club and now these other records are filling gaps. As you can see, the Ponsonby Fillies have become the biggest force in women's rugby and performed some outstanding deeds on the pitch. It’s nice to be able to record it.

Was 2023 our worst year?

2024 Items

2024 Stats

2025 Items