Counties Manukau

For decades the rugby men here played as a sub-union under Auckland, until 1955, when local administrators broke away and formed their own body, South Auckland Counties.

The name settled into its present form, Counties Manukau, in 1995, following the local council reorganisation, but the team had long since taken its identity from something else entirely — the Glenbrook Steel Mill near Waiuku, which gave the side its nickname, the Steelers, and its red, white and black bands.

which makes 1979 worth dwelling on: Counties Manukau beat Auckland to win the National Provincial Championship's top division, the one time they have topped New Zealand's first tier. Jonah Lomu wore the jersey through the mid-1990s.

The bigger prize came later. In 2013, Counties Manukau travelled to Napier and beat Hawke's Bay 27–24 to lift the Ranfurly Shield for the first time in the union's history, then held it through six defences before Hawke's Bay took it back the following year. Three years after that, they beat Wellington to win the inaugural Jonah Lomu Memorial Trophy.