| Founded | 1911 |
|---|---|
| Region | Bay of Plenty |
| Ground(s) | Rotorua International Stadium Baypark Stadium |
| Chairman | Bruce Cameron |
| CEO | Jeremy Curragh |
| League(s) | ITM Cup |
The Bay of Plenty Rugby Union (BOPRU) is the official governing body for rugby union in the Bay of Plenty, in the North-East of the North Island. Its colours are Blue and Gold in a hoop design.
Bay of Plenty's top representative team have won New Zealand's top provincial union competition once in 1976 (the first) and have won the second division twice, once in 1978, as the North Island winner and once in 2000.
Bay of Plenty is a one of the feeders into the Chiefs Super 14 Franchise.
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Bay of Plenty is a proud rugby union that has contributed richly to the long and distinguished history of the game in New Zealand.
The first rugby competitions were held in Ōpōtiki, Katikati and Tauranga in the 1880s. The New Zealand Natives, the first New Zealand representative rugby team to tour Great Britain and Australia in 1888–89, included five Warbrick brothers from Matatā. And David Gallaher, captain of the renowned 1905–6 New Zealand team, grew up in Katikati. Rugby unions were formed in Te Puke in 1906, Whakatāne in 1908, Ōpōtiki in 1910 and the Rangitāiki Plains in 1923.
Bay of Plenty based players were amongst the most prominent in the formative years of the game, but it was not until 1911 that the Bay of Plenty union was fully affiliated to the national body. Up until this time the BOP union was included within the South Auckland union boundaries. As the boundaries of the new union grew, and new sub-unions were formed, the union achieved its first national representation when A.L. McLean was selected for the All Blacks in 1921. McLean was the first of 16 men who have represented New Zealand while wearing the blue and gold hoops, in addition to the many players who received their rugby education in the Bay of Plenty before achieving higher honours elsewhere. As the heartland of Maori rugby the region has produced a large number of Maori All Blacks, while age group and secondary school teams from throughout the union have also established a long and successful heritage that is the envy of many.
It holds union-wide and sub-union competitions including the Kusabs Cup, the premier Bay of Plenty rugby trophy starting in 1912. It has 38 local clubs under affiliated with them and three sub-unions to be part of.
Bay of Plenty won the inaugural National Provincial Championship in 1976, won the second division twice in 1978 and in 2000. In 2004, for the first time the region won the Ranfurly Shield (the premier trophy in provincial rugby), wrestling it from Auckland and holding off a challenge from Waikato before conceding it to Canterbury.
The Bay of Plenty Rugby Union consists of 38 clubs over 3 sub-unions. The Baywide competition runs for 20–21 weeks and split to four stages:
The 38 clubs are split into three sub-unions, the Central, Eastern and Western Sub-Unions.
There are ten clubs in the Central Bay of Plenty sub-union.
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There are 13 clubs in the Eastern Bay of Plenty sub-union.
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There are 13 clubs in the Western Bay of Plenty sub-union.
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Stage One runs for 6–7 weeks, clubs are put into their respective sub-unions and complete a local competition.
24 teams are put into 2 sections with 2 groups of 6 in each section. Each teams faces the other teams in their group once with the Rugby Union Bonus Points System used to determine their placings.
The four top placed teams after a round-robin from each group in the top section go on to compete in the Baywide Premier competition for the Kusabs Cup. The two bottom placed teams each group of section 1 and the two top placed teams from the two groups of section 2 go on to compete in the first division. The remaining eight teams compete in the second division. And division three is made of teams from the local competitions.
Each division goes through a round-robin where every team faces each other and the top four from each division goes on to the Bartercard Baywide Semi-finals and Finals Day.
The semi-finals and finals are played over two weeks and the Premier Division Champions win the Kusabs Cup. In recent years the Tauranga Raptors have won the premier title in the Bay Of Plenty four consecutive times 2007-2010.
The Bay of Plenty Rugby Union has 8 representative teams. The top team play in the Air New Zealand Cup.
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This is a list of players who have represented New Zealand from the Bay of Plenty Steamers. Players are listed by the decade they were first selected in and players in bold are current All Blacks.
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During the 1930s and 1940s the Bay of Plenty Steamers did not have any All Blacks Representatives.
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The Steamers did not have any All Blacks in the 1990s
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