All Blacks stars for Taradale rugby 125 years knees-up

The Taradale facilities at Tareha Recreational Reserve, to where the club moved in the 1990s. Photo / NZME

Three former All Blacks have been confirmed as guest speakers for the Taradale Rugby Football Club's 125th-anniversary dinner during two days of celebration that started today and end on Saturday.

Former club member and Hawke's Bay Magpies loose flanker Dallas Seymour, who made his name internationally primarily at the forefront of New Zealand teams but who played three times for the All Blacks in 1992, will be joined by Frank Bunce (an Auckland and North Harbour centre with four games for Western Samoa and 55 for the All Blacks from 1991-1997). Also attending will be Glen Osborne (a Wanganui and North Harbour fullback and wing with 29 All Blacks caps in 1995-1999).

The celebrations will be held mainly at Tareha Recreational Reserve, which was developed in the 1990s with the laying of new fields and building of new clubrooms, facilitating the club's move from Taradale Park and clubrooms, which are now the Taradale Public Library.

Festivities start at 6pm tonight with a cake-cutting ceremony involving oldest member Trevor Atkins and three-year-old rippa-rugby player Ted Gardner. Friday, the first Matariki public holiday, will be dominated by rugby with all the club teams playing at the reserve from 9am and featuring Taradale and Napier Old Boys Marist in a Nash Cup last-round Premier match starting at 3pm.

There will also be a 2pm Golden Oldies match recognising the club's 69ers, anchors of Golden Oldies rugby in Hawke's Bay.

The dinner will be at the Taradale Club, Wharerangi Rd, Greenmeadows, on Saturday evening.

While there is a history of rugby in Napier dating back to the 1870s, the Taradale takes its establishment back to incorporation in 1897.

The oldest club in New Zealand is Nelson, which marked 150 years in 2018. The oldest Hawke's Bay clubs are Nuhaka (1877) and Tapuae (1878), both currently fielding teams in the Poverty Bay competitions, while the longest-surviving in Napier-Hastings is Napier Pirate, for many years known as Colenso Pirate and which held its 125th-year celebrations in 2011.