Mr McKeown, a multi-award winning photojournalist and Bay of Plenty Times photographer, spent three months' worth of weekends at local club games and ITM Cup rugby matches to capture the behind-the-scenes images for the exhibition.
(Story continues below)
The collection has a fly-on-the-wall feel to it, catching players and fans enjoying our national game, unaware the lens is on them.
"Working as a photographer ... it's about capturing the exciting moments on the field, [but] for this exhibition the challenge has been to point my camera beyond the try line and record the moments in the crowd that are far less rehearsed," Mr McKeown said.
Curator Fiona Kean said the exhibition is a link both to the World Cup and to the Bay of Plenty's rugby history.
"We wanted to do something to coincide with the Rugby World Cup, but have it with a Tauranga flavour. It was quite nice to have something that showed the fans.
"People have been commenting that we're not part of it, but this ties them in.
"It's something that in 50 or 100 years' time, we can look back and have a visual record of it," she said.
Co-curator Dean Flavell agreed it was important the exhibition celebrated the local game, instead of being just another World Cup story.
"I think it's handy that the Bay of Plenty is celebrating 125 years of rugby.
"The World Cup is all good, but we decided to focus on us," he said.
The exhibition also features historic and culturally-significant pieces of rugby memorabilia, including historic photographs and the only known Tauranga Rugby Union cap of its age, which belonged to 1929 Bay of Plenty representative rugby player Charlie Haua.
Part of the exhibition is presented as a rugby clubroom, representing where players and fans might mingle after a game, complete with the sights and smells you might encounter there.
Mr McKeown is excited about presenting the collection to the public and said it's great to be able to see his creations up on display, rather than on his computer screen.
"It brings them to life, it brings the soul to them. When they're hiding away on your computer they're not really speaking out. It's pretty cool," he said.