Wellington Lions
 |
|
| Union | New Zealand Rugby Union |
|---|---|
| Nickname(s) | The Wellington Lions |
| Founded | 1879 |
| Location | Wellington, New Zealand |
| Region | Hurricanes |
| Ground(s) | Westpac Stadium (Capacity: 34,500) |
| Coach(es) | Chris Gibbes |
| Captain(s) | Brad Shields |
| Most caps | Unattached |
| Top scorer | Unattached |
| League(s) | Mitre 10 Cup |
| 2015 | 2nd |
| Official website | |
| www |
|
| Ranfurly Shield | |
| Current holder | Waikato |
| Defences | 0 |
| Next Challenge | 2016 |
The Wellington Rugby Football Union (known as the Wellington Lions for competition reasons) are a New Zealand governing body of rugby union in the New Zealand province of Wellington. The main stadium is Westpac Stadium which is located in Wellington. The union also represents the Wellington Lions, which is professional rugby union team who compete in the Mitre 10 Cup competition and contest for the Ranfurly Shield. Before 2006 the Lions competed in the National Provincial Championship.
Players from Wellington who are eligible to play in the Super Rugby generally play for the Hurricanes, and traditionally contribute the core of the Hurricanes squad. This position is largely due to the Wellington basing of the Hurricanes. Further, Manawatu and Hawke's Bay, two Hurricane provinces and prolific talent producers, had long been mired in the second half of the National Provincial Championship, allowing Wellington to lure the better players of these provinces with ease (Christian Cullen from Manawatu for example). The reorganisation of provincial rugby in 2006 brought all three provinces into the ITM Cup.
The senior Wellington representative team, the Wellington Lions play in the ITM Cup, which replaced the National Provincial Championship in 2006 as the Air New Zealand Cup. The Lions have won the provincial competition four times since its inception in 1976. The titles came in 1978, 1981, 1986 and most recently in 2000. Their colours are gold and black as shown on the Lions jersey. The Lions play their home games at the Westpac Stadium, previously playing at Athletic Park until 1999. Even with an All-Star backline in the late 1990s including Christian Cullen, Tana Umaga, Jonah Lomu and Alama Ieremia what was a superb team on paper never lived up to expectations and Wellington became known for its inconsistency. More recently it should be noted however that although the Lions have been unable to win another national title the Wellington side have made it all the way to the grand final in seven out of the last ten years, losing to Auckland in 2003, to Canterbury in 2004, to Waikato in 2006, Auckland in 2007, Canterbury in 2008, 2009 and most recently 2013. In 2014 Wellington lost a record nine straight losses and were relegated to the ITM Cup Championship 2015.
...
Wikipedia