The Thames Valley Rugby Football Union (TVRFU) is the governing body of rugby union in the region of Thames Valley in the North Island of New Zealand. Thames Valley Rugby Football Union was founded in 1921 when it broke away from the now defunct South Auckland Rugby Union. The Thames Rugby Union, a sub-union that had remained affiliated with the Auckland Rugby Football Union, eventually joined the Thames Valley Union in 1951.
Their senior representative team competes in the Heartland Championship and plays at Boyd Park, Te Aroha and Paeroa Domain, Paeroa.
Rugby has been played in the region since the 1870s and 1880s.
The Ohinemuri Union was founded at Waihi in 1896, and by 1904 this union was named the Goldfields Rugby Union. It consisted of a number of even smaller unions, but was itself a sub-union of the Auckland Rugby Football Union (ARFU), and was therefore not directly affiliated to the New Zealand Rugby Union (NZRU). Along with a number of other sub-unions, the Goldfields ceded from the ARFU to form the South Auckland Rugby Football Union in 1909.
Several sub-unions split away from the South Auckland Union between 1909 and 1921 to form new independent unions, and in 1921 the Hauraki Plains, Paeroa, Piako, Waihi sub-unions did the same to form the Thames Valley Rugby Football Union (TVRFU). The union was from then on directly affiliated to the NZRU. The Thames sub union, which had remained affiliated to the ARFU up until then, joined the TVRFU in 1951.
Thames Valley Rugby Football Union is made up of 12 clubs:
Thames Valley were the winners of the NPC 3rd division in 1988, 1990 and 1995.
On 27 October 2018 Thames Valley won their first Heartland Championship by defeating South Canterbury 17-12 in the Meads Cup Final in Timaru. Thames Valley also won the Meads Cup in 2024 and they were runners up to South Canterbury in 2021.
Thames Valley have yet to win the Lochore Cup.
There was no Heartland Championship in the 2020 season due to Covid-19 restrictions.
Thames Valley has never held the Ranfurly Shield. In 2019 Thames Valley lost 41âÂÂ21 against Otago in a solid display at Wanaka â at one point leading 13âÂÂ0.
The following are Thames Valley's Ranfurly Shield matches since 1960.
Two Thames Valley players have been selected for the All Blacks:
Results each year for Thames Valley up to 2005.
Thames Valley along with Waikato, Counties Manukau, Bay of Plenty, East Coast, Taranaki and King Country now make up the Chiefs Super Rugby franchise. When Super Rugby initially started they were part of the Blues.