The history of the Hari Hari Rugby Club (often spelled Harihari) is a classic story of New Zealand grassroots rugby—born out of isolated West Coast communities, defined by long travel over tough roads, and surviving through mergers to keep the local game alive.
Early Beginnings (1908–1921)
Before an official club was established, rugby was first recorded in Harihari in 1908. A local side assembled to play a traveling team from Ross on a makeshift field at Duart Farm.
The club was officially founded in 1921 as the Harihari Rugby Football Club. That same year, they entered both Senior and Junior teams into the newly formed Westland competitions. In those early days, games were played on Diedrichs’ paddock (which later became Jack Adamson’s) at the corner of the Main Road and Robertson’s Road.
The Lost Records: The exact day-to-day early history of the club is difficult to piece together because its physical minute books and early archives were entirely destroyed across three separate house fires affecting club secretaries and officials (the homes of W. Searle snr, W. Thiele, and Fred Wyatt’s mother-in-law).
Club Pioneers & Growth
The founding driving forces behind the club included local names like W. Searle snr, J.J. McKay, M. Purcell, C. Shearer, G. McMillan, and Alex Sutherland.
• Merle Fane served as the first Senior captain.
• W. Searle jnr was the first Junior captain and an early secretary.
In June 1922, just a year after forming, Hari Hari found early success by winning the seven-a-side tournament cup in Hokitika. For decades, players and supporters endured grueling travel over hundreds of miles of unsealed, rugged West Coast roads to fulfill fixtures against rival sub-union teams.
The Pinnacle: 1969 Championship
Throughout its standalone existence, Hari Hari competed fiercely within the West Coast Rugby Football Union. The absolute competitive highlight for the standalone club came in 1969, when Hari Hari won the West Coast Senior Championship title for the first and only time under its original name, breaking the historic dominance of the larger town clubs like Blaketown and Excelsior.
The club celebrated its Golden Jubilee (50 years) in 1971 and its 75th Jubilee in 1996.
Modern Era: The South Westland Merger
As populations shifted and rural numbers declined in the late 20th century, running a standalone club became unsustainable. To pool resources and field competitive teams, the Hari Hari Rugby Club formally amalgamated with its historical neighbor and first-ever opponent, the Ross Rugby Club.
This merger formed the South Westland Rugby Football Club, which remains active today. Playing out of the historic South Westland region, the combined club has successfully carried on the legacy of its parent clubs, winning the West Coast Senior Championship multiple times (1992, 1995, 1996, 2001, and 2007).
