Hastings Rugby and Sport emerged from the amalgamation of the Hastings (approximately 70 years in existence at the time of its merger with Celtic in 1990) and Celtic Clubs (85 years) with Hastings High School Old Boys (71 years) in 1995. The Hastings Rugby Football Club (one of the Hawke’s Bay Rugby Union’s four founding clubs in 1884) had previous experience of a merger when it teamed up with Joe Warbrick’s Heretaunga Club late in the 1884 season to form the Hawke’s Bay County RFC which disbanded in the1890s and Hastings re-formed again in 1918.