Tasman

Canterbury sits across the strait as the team Tasman measures itself against. There is no derby name for it, just the record, and for a long stretch that record ran the wrong way: Canterbury beat them in the 2016 and 2017 finals.

They did that in 2019, going through the Mitre 10 Cup Premiership unbeaten and finishing it off against Auckland, 31–14. A year later they did it again, tighter this time, 13–12 over the same opponent, back to back titles for a union that had only existed since 2006, formed out of the old Nelson Bays and Marlborough unions. Before either final, there was 2013 and the Heartland Championship, the second-tier title that marked their arrival at the top table.

The Tasman Mako — singular since 2017, the union having dropped the English plural out of respect for Māori usage — have sent a striking number of players through to the All Blacks: Will Jordan and Sevu Reece among the backs who left for the black jersey and never really left Nelson behind. Further back, Quentin MacDonald holds the appearance record at 126 games, and Marty Banks kicked and ran his way to 628 points, the kind of tallies that take a decade of Saturdays to build.

Home games alternate between Trafalgar Park in Nelson and Lansdowne Park in Blenheim, red and navy blue in both grounds. After the near-miss against Waikato in the 2021 final, the union's clearest statement of form has come more recently: Ranfurly Shield in hand from 2024, the Log o' Wood now Tasman's to defend rather than chase.