Championship Years - Women

Women's club rugby began in Auckland in 1986, and Ponsonby was one of the clubs that entered a side in that first competition. The new competition did bear a resemblance to the early days of the men's, in that a number of one-team clubs were established, only to fall by the wayside after a season or two. Ponsonby, then in the middle of one of the club's great periods, took things seriously from the start and those early teams were, by far, the strongest in town. It took eight years for anyone else to catch up, by which time the form women's rugby was to take in Auckland had been well established. A number of those early Ponsonby players made New Zealand teams and almost all were regular Auckland reps, although record-keeping was almost non-existent at that time and not until the NPC began in 1999 was any systematic approach adopted.

The Coleman Shield was presented in 1998, but it took a long time before it was seen in the Ponsonby clubrooms. That said, and given the attention paid to developing young players at Ponsonby in what is still the biggest growth area in the game, it was never likely to be another 27 years before it was back. After that 2020 win, Ponsonby returned to their former position as the team to beat, and it was a mighty effort for anyone to do that.

A brief summary of each championship season attached below; click on the year to go to the link.