They won club rugby titles in more than one province

• By Steven White & Adam Julian

The recent passing of Mick (Stu) Bremner, who won Auckland and Canterbury club rugby titles as well as winning Wellington’s Jubilee Cup with University a decade apart as a player and coach prompted us to think which other players have achieved similar feats.

There are many such instances, particularly in previous eras when players were itinerant and moved around the country for work. For example, Former All Black captain Wilson Whineray played for six different provinces.

In no particular order, see below a snapshot of players who won Wellington club Championships (the Jubilee Cup since 1929) and triumphed elsewhere.

Mick Bremner – Affectionately nicknamed the Olympic All Black because each of his selections for New Zealand were in the Olympic years of 1952, 1956, and 1960, Bremner was a winner throughout his entire rugby life. Upon leaving Mount Albert Grammar School as a 1A champion with the First XV in 1947, the five-eighth helped Grammar club win the 1951 and 1953 Gallaher Shields under Sir Fred Allen’s coaching. In 1954, he transferred to the University of Wellington, where he won the Jubilee Cup, then rattled off four straight Canterbury club titles with the Maroons (University) from 1956-59. He also played in several teams that won big scalps, notably the 1956 NZ Universities side that shocked the Springboks, and the Canterbury side that beat the 1956 Boks and the 1959 Lions. Bremner subsequently turned to coaching University between 1963-65 and again 1970-71. His teams co-won won the Jubilee Cup in 1964 with Marist and were runners-up in 1965 to Athletic.

Campbell Woodmass – A building apprenticeship took the gutsy and cunning former Mana College halfback to Auckland, where he initially plied his trade at College Rifles before making a switch to powerhouse Ponsonby. In 2018, in his 40th blazer-earning appearance, Woodmass won a Gallaher Shield final against Grammar Tech at Eden Park.

He returned home to Porirua in 2019 and helped Northern United win their fifth Jubilee Cup with a gritty 25-16 victory over Wainuiomata in the “Blue Collar final.” Woodmass won the Jim Brown Memorial Medal as the player of the match with his composed and clinical performance. In the semi-final at Lyndhurst Park, Norths rallied from 17-0 down to pip Tawa 18-17, with Woodmass scoring the winning try. Between 2019 and 2021, Woodmass played four games for Wellington.

In 2022 he packed up his tools and moved to New Plymouth, winning the Taranaki Premier club rugby championship in his first year there with Tukapa, his third major club championship win in five years.

In 2025 he played one match for Norths on Porirua Park on a visit home, scoring this try:

Woodmass’ former Norths teammate Kienan Higgins later won two Maddison Trophy titles with Taradale in the Hawke’s Bay, part of a side that won 25 consecutive matches between 2024 and 2025. He was also part of the 2022 Norths and the Hutt Old Boys Marist team in the early stages of their title winning 2025 season.

Jonathan Fuimaono – Was the inspirational anchor of the Old Boys University scrum, powering the students to Jubilee Cups in 2015, 2017, 2018, and 2020, leaving the Billygoats in 2021 as their most-capped player with 185 games. Now living in Otaki, he won the Ramsbotham Cup in Horowhenua-Kapiti with Rahui in 2023. Now on the coaching staff, Rahui were runners-up to Foxton in 2025. Several of Fuimaono’s teammates from that initial 2015 side have also won club rugby titles elsewhere.

Fui, bottom left with the Jubilee Cup and his daughter, and the OBU Goats celebrating their 2020 win. Photo: Andy McArthur.

At the turn of last century Duncan McGregor and ‘Angry’ Tom Cross stormed to the 1902 Canterbury club championship together with Linwood. Wing McGregor scored 11 tries in 10 games during this campaign and Linwood provided 13 players to the Canterbury team.

Both players then transferred to Wellington. Cross won the Wellington club championship with Pōneke in 1903, then moved to Petone and was a key player in their sides that won four titles in a row 1904-07. McGregor joined Petone and was also part of this success. Both players were in the All Blacks and McGregor toured with the ‘Originals’ to Britain and North America in 1905/06. In 1907 loose forward Cross was ordered off the field in a club match for Petone and was suspended for a season, so he switched to rugby league and toured Britain with the NZ league team in 1907/08. Cross was originally from Dunedin and had started his career with the Kaikorai club that won a seven-peat between 1893-99, so he was a winner for four clubs in three provinces.

McGregor and Cross were both in Wellington team that won the Ranfurly Shield for the first time in 1904:

McGregor had the distinction of scoring the first ever Ranfurly try when he dotted down in the 6-3 win for Wellington against Auckland. The following week in Wellington’s first defence, they were down 13-0 but McGregor scored two tries and added a conversion and penalty to help Wellington win 15-13 and retain the Shield.

Bob Scott won the Gallaher Shield in Auckland 1942 and 1948 and then arrived in Petone with great fanfare in 1954. The fullback had played 52 games and 17 tests for the All Blacks and 153 first-class games overall before retiring from first-class rugby and coming to Wellington where he opened his menswear shop on Jackson St. He played three seasons for Petone. In 1954 Petone were runners-up to University (see Mick Bremner above) and in 1955 they were runners-up to first-time winners Onslow. But in 1956 Scott won the Jubilee Cup with Petone. He was a regular player at fullback and was the team’s vice-captain and filled in as captain when regular skipper Don McIntosh was away playing representative matches for Wellington.

Ray O’Callaghan won club championship titles with four provinces. He first co-won the Canterbury Metro title in 1944 with the Air Force club, then post-war moved across to the West Coast where he had grown up and won the 1946 title with Greymouth Celtic. O’Callaghan then moved to Auckland and won the 1947 Gallaher Shield with Marist. The following year he transferred to the province of his birth, Wellington, and joined the Marist Brothers Old Boys club and won the Jubilee Cup. Two years later in 1950 he won his second Jubilee Cup with Marist and would later coach Marist to the title (shared with University, see Bremner above) in 1964, after being assistant coach in their 1962 and 1963 wins. The goal-kicking second-five or fullback was a Wellington representative for several seasons from 1948 and made the All Blacks in 1949. He was a key cog in Wellington’s famous Ranfurly Shield run in 1953.

Some other more recent examples of players around the country to have been multiple champions in two provinces:

Hugo Nankivell – The older brother of Māori All Black and Tasman NPC winning second five Alex Nankivell, Hugo only managed four games for Waikato but the lionhearted loose forward was a perennial winner at club level. Out of the 2012 South Island First XV competition winning Christchurch Boys’ High School First XV, Nankivell was part of the Lincoln University team that won a treble of Canterbury Metro titles from 2013 to 2015, All Blacks Jordie and Scott Barrett featured too. In 2018 he won a Nelson title with Stoke, though they didn’t claim the overall Tasman title. In 2021, while working as a teacher aide at St Paul’s Collegiate in Hamilton he helped Fraser Tech win their tenth Breweries Shield.

Fletcher Morgan – Recent All Blacks Sevens and Southland Stags debutant Fletcher Morgan has enjoyed so much club rugby success that professional outfits couldn’t ignore him. “The Wahi Whippet” is a product of Hamilton Boys’ High School, where he won a Super 8 title in 2017. From there, he headed to Christchurch, and in 2020, he won a senior metro title with Lincoln University. With interest from Canterbury lukewarm, Morgan returned to Hamilton and, in 2024, helped Marist win all 15 matches to claim the Breweries Shield. A Meads Cup triumph with Thames Valley followed, capturing the interest of Southland. In 2025, Morgan helped Woodlands win the Galbraith Shield. In one game against the 2024 champions, Star, he scored 36 points, including four tries.

Brett Craies – Bret Craies was prolific for Ponsonby in the 1980s, winning five Gallaher Shield titles and scoring 1039 points, including a record 305 in the 1986 season in which Ponsonby won all 20 matches. Remarkably, he only managed three appearances for Auckland, kept out of the star-studded lineup by All Black Grant Fox. Eager for a decent crack at provincial rugby, he joined Hamilton Old Boys and won three Breweries Shields in 1989, 1991, and 1993. With Waikato, he played 32 games, winning 23 and scoring 298 points. He was part of the first Waikato team to win the NPC in 1992. The accountant is originally from Northcote, and in 2017 and 2018, he coached their senior men’s team to the club championship.

Anna Richards – The first New Zealand woman, alongside Dame Farah Palmer, inducted into the World Rugby Hall of Fame, featured in 49 of the Black Ferns’ first 51 Tests between 1991 and 2010, winning 47 times. The prodigiously talented halfback and first five was equally dominant at club level, initially winning three consecutive titles with University in Canterbury between 1986 and 1988. From 1991 to 1993, she was part of three Ponsonby sides that won the Coleman Shield, and then, with a group of ambitious pioneers, she founded the College Rifles women’s team, which won five Coleman Shields between 1996 and 2004.

Brad Tauwhare played in eight title wins for Ponsonby in Auckland(2004-11). He then won some more for Kiwi on the West Coast (exact number to be confirmed) for over ten overall.

Axel Hohneck won a championship with Southern in Dunedin in 2017 and with Whakarewarewa in the Bay of Plenty in 2025.