Thames Valley Rugby Football Union
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| Club information | |
|---|---|
| Full name | Thames Valley Rugby Football Union |
| Nickname(s) | Swamp Foxes |
| Website | http://www.thamesvalleyswampfoxes.co.nz/ |
| Colours | Gold, Red, Black |
| Founded | 1921 |
| Current details | |
| Ground(s) | |
| Competition | Heartland Championship |
The Thames Valley Rugby Football Union (TVRFU) is the governing body of rugby union in the region of Thames Valley in the North Island of New Zealand. Their senior representative team compete in the Heartland Championship. Thames Valley Rugby Football Union was founded in 1921 when it broke away from the now defunct South Auckland Rugby Football Union. The Thames Rugby Union, a sub-union that had remained affiliated with the Auckland Rugby Football Union, eventually joined the Thames Valley Union in 1951.
The Thames Valley team plays at Boyd Park, Te Aroha and Paeroa Domain, Paeroa.
Rugby has been played in the region since the 1870s and 1880s.
The Ohinemuri Union was founded at Waihī in 1896, and by 1904 this union was named the Goldfields Rugby Union. It consisted of a number of even smaller unions, but was itself a sub-union of the Auckland Rugby Football Union (ARFU), and was therefore not directly affiliated to the New Zealand Rugby Union (NZRU). Along with a number of other sub-unions, the Goldfields ceded from the ARFU to form the South Auckland Rugby Football Union in 1909.
Several sub-unions split away from the South Auckland Union between 1909 and 1921 to form new independent unions, and in 1921 the Hauraki Plains, Paeroa, Piako, Waihī sub-unions did the same to form the Thames Valley Rugby Football Union (TVRFU). The union was from then on directly affiliated to the NZRU. The Thames Valley Union, which had remained affiliated to the ARFU up until then, joined the TVRFU in 1951.
Thames Valley won the NPC 3rd division in 1988, 1990 and 1995.
Thames Valley have never held the Ranfurly Shield. They have challenged for the shield unsuccessfully on 14 occasions; their most recent challenge was a 68–0 loss to Counties Manukau. The Swamp Foxes' following challenge was in June 2016, when they lost 83–13 to Waikato.
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