Our Clubs History
A HISTORY COMPILED BY ROYCE KISBY – The Spotswood United Rugby Football & Sports Club Inc was formed in November 1990 through the amalgamation of the Star and Spotswood College Old Boys Rugby Clubs.
Star Rugby Football Club
[ View our Star RFC Team Photo Archive ]
The Star Rugby Club was formed in 1889. The original club laid its foundation the year before in 1888 when a group of enthusiastic young lads got together to play and called themselves the ‘Red House’ Club after the nearby Red House Hotel – later to become the State Hotel. They practiced and played a few games at the St Michaels Square the current site of Central School.
The following year it was thought inappropriate that the young club called itself after a Hotel so a meeting was called of all interested parties and the Star Rugby Football Club was born with the first playing strip of dark and light blue hoops adopted.
It was in 1892 the club changed it’s playing strip to a Black Jersey with a 5-pointed Gold Star – this was the strip played in right up to the amalgamation with a few tweaks along the way.
The club had its first success in 1896 when the club won all three competitions that were played in Taranaki at the time – it was also about this time a syndicate of club members was formed to purchase land in Fitzroy and a ground with a banked cycle track around the outside was formed. This was the club base and was highlighted in 1900 when the Taranaki vs Otago rep game was played at the ground. After the land was relinquished the club was based at numerous locations including a site on Mangorei Road, the Racecourse, Pukekura Park and finally to Rugby Park, the present Yarrows Stadium.
In 1902 the first Dan O’Brien Day vs Tukapa was held and these are always fiercely competitive occasions and are always keenly looked forward to by both clubs up to the present day.
The club went into recess for the First World War from 1916 to 1919.
After struggling for some years with playing and administration numbers due to the commitments of members to the two World Wars, strength in both areas improved to reach great heights in 1947 and 1948. In 1947 the club won the Taranaki Sixth grade and Senior A titles and again in 1948 when the club had their most successful season with the Fourth Grade, Third Grade and Senior As all winning Taranaki titles.
[ View the History of Rugby Park, New Plymouth 1929 – 1962 ]
1950 was a significant year for the club – the Star and Tukapa clubs combined to purchase an area of 11 ½ acres of land to the south and west of the then Rugby Park for the purpose of ultimately providing more playing fields – 1 acre of this land was sold to the Education Department for the extension of Westown School – another 2 acres fronting Clawton St was sold off with the remaining 8 ½ acres, which was sufficient for two playing fields, been retained. For some years the two clubs farmed the area, selling hay, letting for grazing and running sheep until 1958.
In this year the clubs handed over the title Deeds of the unencumbered (no debt) property as well as a cheque for £2,500 (a significant amount in 1958) to be used for the development of the land into playing fields – these are the current No3 and No4 …
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Spotswood College Old Boys Rugby Club
[ View our Spotswood Old Boys RFC Team Photo Archive ]
The Spotswood College Old Boys Rugby Club was formed in 1964 through an affiliation to the Spotswood College.
The Patron of the newly formed club was Mr A.L. McPhail who was the first principal of Spotswood College that had been officially opened four years earlier in 1960. Mr McPhail was in fact the Patron throughout the entire Twenty-Five years of the Spotswood College Old Boys Rugby Club.
It was a group of new Old Boys from the College that got together to instigate the formation of the rugby club. The club was initially based at the College playing their club games at the ground on Omata Road and at Rugby Park.
In latter years an agreement with the New Plymouth City Council saw the club based at the old council landfill site in Cook Street Marfell where in 1977/78 a clubrooms and changing facility was built.
Over the years the playing fields at the ground proved problematic and although fine facilities were built by members over the years, all Senior games for the club continued to played at Rugby Park.
Although was not successful in winning a Senior Taranaki Title, the club enjoyed many successes in the age grades and were promoted to the Taranaki Senior Division One competition in 1978 with the current Spotswood United President, Graham Nixon a prominent player in that team.
1987 saw the club take the Under 17 ½ Taranaki Title with current Spotswood United Chairman Tony Standen a player in that team coached by current Life Member Bruce Sutton.
Further success followed in 1980 with a Third Grade Title and the Under 19 Title in 1988.
The club produced many players to Taranaki teams over the years and was the club synonyms with playing open running rugby in there bright red playing strip.
The Office Bearers of the Spotswood College Rugby Club at amalgamation
Patron: Alex McPhail
President: Wayne McCurdy
Club Captain: Graeme O’Neill
Secretary/Treasurer: Len Walker
Life Members of the Spotswood College Old Boys Rugby Club at amalgamation
P.V. (Peter) Blyde (1974)
D.C. (Don) Webber
G.V. (Gordon) Cursons (1982)
B.R. (Bruce) Sutton (1990)
G.R. (Gary) Rattenbury (1990)
A.L. (Alex) McPhail (1990)
Amalgamation:
Spotswood United Rugby Football & Sports Club Inc.
[ View our Spotswood United Team Photo Archive ]
Discussion between the two clubs started during the 1988 season and a committee made up of equal numbers from both clubs was formed in 1989 and worked through the numerous pro and cons of an amalgamation.
A subcommittee made contact with numerous amalgamated clubs around New Zealand and a visit was made to two clubs in Auckland to gauge the positives and negatives that had been encountered.
Two of the biggest obstacles these clubs had to overcome were found to be the same hurdles our committee had to grapple with – location and name and to make an amalgamation work compromises had to be made in both of these aspects.
The Star club had previous amalgamation meetings with both New Plymouth Old Boys and the Tukapa clubs and although both of these clubs had initiated these discussions, neither were prepared to compromise on these aspects therefore negating any progress.
Location
Both clubs owned their buildings with both on Council owned Land so there were no anomalies in that regard.
During discussions, it became evident that the facilities at Marfell Park would be more saleable to a number of organisation and in fact the Spotswood Old Boys club had received inquiry from Soccer once the amalgamation rumours started circulating.
The facilities the Star club enjoyed at Rugby Park were second to none and could only ever be suitable for a rugby organisation.
Therefore, it was a unanimous decision that the Spotswood Old Boys facilities would be sold and the facilities at Rugby Park would be the amalgamated clubs base.
Name
This was the most contentious issues for both clubs and was the issue that provoked most debate at Special General Meetings held by the clubs. It was interesting that those with the strongest opinions on this topic were mostly those not associated with either club for some time. If these same individuals had remained active in their respective clubs there may not have been the same necessity for amalgamation talks.
There were many names suggested including, Suburbs, Westown, Western Suburbs, New Plymouth, Star Old Boys, Spotswood Star, Star Spotswood, City, United, Central and so on.
It was important to retain a relationship with Spotswood College and that was the focus on the final decision.
At the end of all discussions it was agreed the compromises made by the Spotswood Old Boys club to relinquish the facilities at Marfell Park had to be matched with the same compromises around the name to bring the amalgamation to fruition.
It was agreed that the amalgamation would proceed in November 1990, the Spotswood College Old Boys Club would be wound up and their assets and liabilities would be transferred to the Star Ruby Club and they would change its name to Spotswood United Rugby Football & Sports Club Inc.
Spotswood United Premier side won their first Championship Title in 2019 beating Coastal 18 – 13 on Yarrows Stadium Number 1 field.
Our Playing Strip
Star RFC and Spotswood Old Boys Rugby Clubs who amalgamated to form Spotswood United RFC in 1990. Our playing strips identify elements from both teams jerseys.
Celebrating 125 Years
In 2014 we celebrated our 125 Jubilee year. Our teams wore the with pride the special Centenary jersey below.
