Any challengers for Ponsonby record?

Ponsonby Rugby Club has been consistently one of the most high-performing clubs in Auckland and New Zealand, and it may be about to achieve perhaps the most graphic example of its dominance.

Ponsonby club historian Paul Neazor believes that when the club’s senior team achieves two more wins in the Auckland club championship, it will mark its 1500th win, the first by any team in New Zealand.

Ponsonby started the season with 1495 wins, and, as of May 6, has won three more.

As Neazor said, “It would take a losing season to prevent that happening, and we haven’t had one of them since 1962.”

There are a couple of caveats to Neazor’s claim.

The figure includes 24 games from those years before the creation of the Auckland Rugby Union and the start of an Auckland senior competition.

It also takes into account the seasons of 1942-43 when Ponsonby and Grafton combined to field a team due to a lack of senior-graded players during the Second World War. Neazor said he included the 14 wins those sides achieved for continuity.

He added that the games relate only to the club championship, not any tours, champion of champions games, benefit matches or Auckland tournaments outside the championship.

Neazor said Ponsonby’s age, it was founded in 1874 and is one of New Zealand’s first active clubs.

“Simply on the score of opportunity, there will be very few teams who have played more than the 2176 championship games the blue-and-blacks have contested, and only a handful who have even played 2000.

“The next oldest active club in Auckland is University and they entered the Senior competition full-time in 1908, which implies they have played nearly 300 fewer games.”

Ponsonby was one of only three established clubs in Auckland that were not affected by the District Scheme between 1891 and 1909. The other two clubs, Grafton, which amalgamated to form Carlton in 1982, and North Shore, now part of North Harbour’s union, took no part in senior rugby for quite a few scattered years until the mid-1920s.

Apart from 1917, when the team (by regulation, an Under-20 combination) withdrew following its first game, Ponsonby has been consistently in the top grade.

The second factor is the length of Auckland’s club programmes. It expanded to 14-16 games from 1929 until 1948, when 18 games were played. It didn’t drop below that figure again until 2012, and between 1972 and 2007 Ponsonby played at least 20 games a year.

In 1982, when finals were introduced, the competition was split into groups of four or eight for the knockouts, and every team played at least 18 games.

And the final factor is the consistency of the club’s success. Traditionally, the club has won more games in a season than it has lost, and often by many more. Its success rate is slightly below 69 percent (draws are non-wins). Few teams can match that longevity of success, although the All Blacks have a better record on the Test stage, where they can choose from the best available across the country.

In the last 100 years, Ponsonby has suffered only four losing seasons while winning 1229 games.

The club has enjoyed two outstanding concentrations of winning effort – from 1981 to 1996 and 2000 to 2011.

In the first, Ponsonby won at least 14 games each year, and between 1986 and 1995, it won no less than 16 a year.

And in the second, they had 12 years of winning at least 15 games per season.

However, the chances of other Auckland clubs challenging the Ponsonby record are diminishing. At the moment, the teams making Auckland’s final will play only 11 championship games. That’s the lowest total in 100 years.

It is a common factor in inter-provincial rugby as well. Auckland, Wellington and Canterbury once had between 14-18 games a season for their A team. Now it is down to 10-13, and reaching 13 requires winning the National Provincial Championship.

Only three NPC teams won 10 games or more last year.

No provincial union has played enough games to challenge Ponsonby’s record.

Auckland’s representative side has played slightly more than 1600 games across its history.

The only two likely club contenders across the country close to challenging Ponsonby’s 52 club titles are Otago University, who have won 51 titles, and Petone in Wellington, who have won 38, and Neazor expected they would be the most likely to follow Ponsonby in achieving 1500 wins.

The 1500 mark is significant, as Neazor points out.

“Teams which win a lot in smaller unions normally do so in shorter programmes, rather than the 16-18 games played in city championships, and I doubt we’ll find a realistic challenger there.

“Even the All Blacks, who have those long tours in their records and vast numbers of non-Test wins, can point to only 1162 wins.

“I’m convinced the only teams with more wins will be found in the ranks of the big, old clubs in the British Isles, who used to play 40-plus game seasons, possibly two in Australia – Brothers of Brisbane established in 1905 and Randwick in Sydney, which was founded in 1882, or one in South Africa, Stellenbosch University, founded in 1875, would compare. Although the Southern Hemisphere teams often played shorter seasons than Auckland, so, despite large numbers of championships won, opportunity may be lacking here as well.

“Sides like the main Welsh clubs (Cardiff, Swansea, Llanelli, Newport and the rest) whose history is long and proud will have easily topped the Ponsonby count, simply on the score of opportunity. Outside Britain, only the three I have named strike me as being able to do better.”

Neazor stands to be corrected on his claims and welcomes any information that could identify challengers to Ponsonby’s achievements.