Otago Rugby Football Union
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| Nickname(s) | Razorbacks |
|---|---|
| Founded | 1881 |
| Region | Otago |
| Ground(s) | Forsyth Barr Stadium, Dunedin (Capacity: 30,748) |
| Coach(es) | Cory Brown |
| League(s) |
ITM Cup Women's Provincial Championship |
| 2013 | 3rd, Championship Division |
The Otago Rugby Football Union is the official governing body of rugby union for the Otago region of New Zealand. The union is based in the city of Dunedin, and its home ground is Forsyth Barr Stadium. The top representative team competes in the ITM Cup, New Zealand's top provincial competition. The union was to have been liquidated in March 2012. However a deal involving the Dunedin City Council allowed it to keep operating.
The union was founded in 1881, celebrating its 125th year in 2006. Since the inception of the NPC in 1976, Otago have won the competition twice, in 1991 and 1998. Furthermore, since playoffs were introduced, Otago have made the final on six occasions and the semi-finals on 11 Occasions.
In Ranfurly Shield performance, Otago have won 36 of 74 shield matches, with only Auckland and Canterbury having a better record.
Otago made two more NPC Division 1 finals since their last title in 1998, both in 2001 and 2005 finishing runners-up on both occasions.
After 2005 the NPC was revamped into the Air New Zealand Cup, which is now known as the Mitre10 Cup. Four new teams were promoted from the NPC Second Division into the Air New Zealand Cup. Otago had another season reaching the semi-finals, losing to Waikato 44–15 at Waikato Stadium.
2007 began with a 68–7 defeat to Wellington in the Capital. Otago would win five matches to reach the quarter finals where they were beaten by Canterbury 44–6 in Christchurch.
2008 saw Otago win four of their ten matches. However Otago would be the only team to defeat Wellington (36–21) during the regular season. Otago finished 10th in 2009 and Otago finish 10th once again with five wins from thirteen matches.
2010 saw a new adopted name. Otago would be known as "the Razorbacks". However Otago won two of thirteen matches and finished with the wooden spoon.
2011 would see Otago placed in the reformatted championship. 2011 was a significant year for Otago with the team playing its final season at Carisbrook before the mid-season relocation to the Forsyth Barr Stadium. Also Otago's Tony Brown would play for the Razorbacks. Otago began the season defeating North Harbour 46–29 at Carisbrook. The following week Otago created history by defeating Auckland 32–25 at Eden Park. It was Otago's first win at Eden Park since 1976. Otago started with just as many wins as they had all of the 2010 ITM Cup season. Otago would play Southland in the teams final ever game at Carisbrook, losing 19–12 to the Stags. Manawatu were supposed to be Otago's first new opponents at the Forsyth Barr Stadium. Bad weather however would postpone the game to later in the season. Otago played Canterbury in the teams' first game at Forsyth Barr Stadium. Canterbury won 29–16 in front of a crowd of 14067. Otago defeated Manawatu 28–20 to finish 3rd position in the championship.
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