Manawatu

Frank Oliver captained the side through 43 caps for the All Blacks, and it was under players of his generation that Manawatu built the union it would later celebrate: the 1976 Ranfurly Shield win over Auckland, settled 12-10 by a Doug Rollerson dropped goal. That run sits alongside the one outright title the Turbos have to show for a history stretching back to 1886, when the Manawatu County Union was formed in Palmerston North and helped bring the national union into being six years later — the NPC First Division Championship of 1980, with Mark Donaldson leading the side as an All Black captain in his own right.

Forty-one All Blacks in total have worn Manawatu colours first.

The union's finances did not always match its rugby: pooling resources with Hawke's Bay in 1997 produced the Central Vikings, a side good enough to reach back-to-back NPC finals before money problems ended the arrangement within two seasons. Hawke's Bay remains the fixture that matters most, the two sides meeting for the Kel Tremain Memorial Trophy in a derby that predates and outlasted that short-lived merger.