Covering the distance – Kaikoura RFC

The North Canterbury Division 2 competition covers an extensive distance, thanks to the involvement of Canterbury’s furtherest north club Kaikoura.

Catering for the local community with a range of Junior teams and the club’s sole Senior side in Division 2, Kaikoura joined Canterbury Rugby following the Kaikoura Earthquake in 2016 that restricted access to the north and the Rugby Club’s former home in Tasman.

Since then, the club has been playing it’s trade in the North Canterbury competitions and doing so rather successfully, winning the Division 2 competition the last two years.

“We’re obviously relatively geographically isolated,” said Club Captain Dean Hamilton, “but this year, we’ve gained a couple of younger players who have graduated out of playing in the teenage grades, traveling over to Hurunui to play, and now coming back to play for our senior side.”

“We travel as a team each week, hopping on the bus, and the furthest we have to go is Oxford, who are actually heading to us this weekend.”

“At the moment, we’re operating out of temporary facilities as the clubrooms gets rebuilt following the earthquakes, so we’ve got a grassroots set up with containers but we got a lot buy in and support from the community, being the only senior team, the town really gets behind us” Hamilton said.

The club was founded in 1888, making it one of the oldest in Canterbury and regularly has the support of their one All Black, Brian Ford, a winger who played for both Canterbury and, more famously, Marlborough, a great representation for the club that now finds themselves on the red and black side of the once famous rivalry.