The Wellington Football Club, affectionately known as “The Axemen,” holds a legendary status in New Zealand sports history. Formed in 1870 (with its first official representative match in 1871), it is New Zealand’s oldest continuous rugby club. While other clubs were technically formed slightly earlier, they either went into recess during the World Wars or originally played under different codes (like Australian Rules). The Axemen have successfully fielded a team every single winter since their inception.
1. Origins, a Crimean Veteran, and the “Axemen”
The club owes its birth to Captain J.R.C. Isherwood, a veteran of the Crimean War and an adjutant in the British Army’s 69th Foot Regiment. In the early 1870s, Isherwood organized matches against other stationed military units—like the 18th Royal Irish Regiment—often played in the thick mud of a newly drained Basin Reserve.
Isherwood gifted the club the colors of his former regiment: black and gold. He also bestowed the regiment’s crest—a chained rampant lion holding an axe—which gave the club its enduring moniker, The Axemen.
A Lasting City Legacy: The club’s influence ran so deep with Wellington’s founding fathers that the club’s black and gold livery became the official corporate colors of the Wellington province. Furthermore, the city of Wellington’s official Coat of Arms still features the Axemen’s chained rampant lion and axe.
2. Shaping Wellington Rugby
The club predates both the regional and national governing bodies, being formed 9 years before the Wellington Rugby Football Union (WRFU, 1879) and 22 years before the New Zealand Rugby Union (1892). In fact, Captain Isherwood went on to help establish neighboring clubs and eventually co-founded the WRFU itself.
3. Championship Success & Turbulence
The Axemen were dominant forces in the pre-World War I era, capturing five senior championships. However, the onset of World War II took a sobering toll on the club, claiming the lives of many of its premier players just as they had secured their first Jubilee Cup title in 1939.
Wellington FC enjoyed a massive golden era in the late 1970s and 1980s, winning the premier Jubilee Cup in 1972, 1978, 1982, 1983, 1985, and 1987. The 1985 season stands out as arguably the greatest in club history, with the premier side completing the elusive Swindale Shield and Jubilee Cup “double”.
Following that peak, the club fell into a steep decline, eventually facing relegation from the Premier ranks in 2003 and dropping down into the Senior 2 bracket. Driven heavily by former All Black icons and dedicated club alumni, the Axemen staged a major resurgence, fighting their way back into Wellington’s top-tier Premier division in 2014.
4. International Pedigree
Wellington Football Club has produced 19 All Blacks over its lifespan. This includes history-makers from New Zealand’s very first national team tour in 1884, such as Henry Roberts and Paddy Webb—with Webb notably scoring the very first points in All Black history.
Through legendary forward Murray Mexted and locking partner Murray Pierce, the club achieved the incredible feat of having at least one Axeman representative in every single All Black Test match from 1979 to 1990. In more recent years, powerful loose forward Vaea Fifita added his name to the club’s international honors wall.
5. Present Day
Today, the club operates out of Hataitai Park on the city’s south side. The clubrooms are famous throughout New Zealand rugby circles for housing one of the most extensive and historic collections of rugby memorabilia in the Southern Hemisphere. They continue to field strong senior premier, reserve, colts, and junior grades, keeping the oldest flame in New Zealand club rugby burning bright
