rugby coffers fill to healthy levels

Wanganui Rugby Union chairman Jeff Phillips reports a $107,000 surplus for the year at the annual meeting last week. PHOTO/Stuart Munro

Wanganui rugby is in a winning groove both on and off the field.

Not only did the city's Heartland team go unbeaten last season to win back-to-back Meads Cups, but the Wanganui Rugby Football Union (WRFU) has posted a record profit for the 2016 season.

WRFU chairman Jeff Phillips revealed a $107,000 surplus to delagtes at last week's well-attended 129th annual meeting.

The is a major turnaround from a disastrous recrod $128,000 deficit under an old office regime in 2014 and a $36,000 loss in a 14-month 2015-16 period. The union has since moved to a 12-month fiscal period finishing at the end of December each year.

The previous best recorded profit was $44,108 in 1988, a year after the union's centenary.

Union chief executive Bridget Belsham cites increaded funding from New Zealand Rugby, grants from charitable trust and sponsors combined with a prudent office policy as the major factors for the unexpectedly high 2016 surplus.

"It's important the stability of the union continues," Belsham said.

"Grants, sponsorship and national union funding are not guaranteed, so we need to continue lobbying for that support. We have our cash reserves policy and that's a major factor. It has been an extraordinary year and one we can be very satisfied with."

Phillps said after the distaster of 2014, the WRFU implemented a cash reserves policy of holding a continuity or cash reserve of 50 percent of the planned level of expenditure in any financial year.

Belsham and Phillips said it was heartening that the union had improved its KPI rating with the national union from 52.5 percent in 2015 to 85 percent in 2016.

Player registrations had also increased from 2525 to 2630 and coaching numbers from 164 to 174.

Hosting a hometown Meads Cup semi-final and final at Cooks Gardens had also helped boost union coffers.