About the sponsorship
We have been a sponsor of North Harbour Rugby since 2003. Most people think of North Harbour Rugby as being the main North Harbour senior side - but it's much more than that. North Harbour Rugby encompasses a geographical area that takes in 12 rugby clubs from the region bounded by the three harbours: Mahurangi; Waitemata and Kaipara. The club rugby season runs annually from March through to the beginning of August.
Within the North Harbour region there are 17 secondary schools (close to 100 teams) taking part in the school rugby competition. Due to the ratio of secondary schools to rugby clubs, in many instances there is a strong relationship between the two. Representative teams from North Harbour take part in both national and regional competitions. The North Harbour senior side plays in the prestigious ITM Cup, which is recognised as the world's strongest domestic rugby competition.
At QBE, we get a tremendous warm glow knowing that not only are we supporting New Zealand's favourite sport at grassroots level, but we're also indirectly helping to nurture our future All Blacks. And at no time was that glow warmer than when Harbour's very own Tony Woodcock scored the winning try to win New Zealand the 2011 Rugby World Cup.