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The latest episode of The Club Rooms is now live.

This time, we head to Mount Wellington Rugby Club and sit down with president and captain Darin Housham — a proud fourth-generation member of the club.

Darin talks about what Mount Wellington means to his whānau, the life lessons that have come through the club, and the role rugby continues to play in the wider community.

He also opens up about the harder years — losing the club rooms, rebuilding, and the challenge of keeping a grassroots club moving forward.

Four generations. One club. A lot of history.

Watch the full episode on YouTube.

50 years later, the rugby still brings them together.

For The Club Rooms, we recently travelled outside Auckland for our first episode on the road returning to Thames Rugby & Sports Club, a relationship we’ve proudly maintained since 2024.

We had the privilege of sitting down with the 1976 Hui Mai championship team, celebrating 50 years since their clean sweep season.

With the McClinchy Trophy back in their hands, the stories, laughs and camaraderie came naturally.

And that’s what makes grassroots sport so powerful.

These men weren’t just remembering a rugby season. They were reconnecting with friendships, identity and a community that has stayed with them for five decades.

Hui Mai later became part of the Thames Rugby & Sports Club story, but the identity is still very much alive.

This is why we created The Club Rooms.

To document the people behind the clubs. The icons, stalwarts, volunteers, champions and communities whose stories are often at risk of being lost.

Thames reminded us that rugby is much more than what happens on the field.

It’s a social infrastructure that connects generations.

And there are thousands of stories like this across New Zealand.

If you follow sport in NZ, you keep hearing the same narrative: unions are losing out, numbers are down, and the game is changing. But after spending Season 1 interviewing club icons and stalwarts for our project, Clubrooms, we found something even more urgent: we are sitting on a massive gap generation.

The legendary stalwarts who have turned up for their clubs for the last 20, 30, or 40 years aren't going to be around forever, and it begs the question: who is stepping up next? Who is taking the pads down off the posts? Who is keeping the shed tidy? Who is sacrificing their Saturday night to run the bar or making sure the jerseys are washed for next week?

Without these battlers, volunteers, and proud life members, grassroots rugby dies, and if that happens, a massive piece of what makes us Kiwis goes down the gurgler with it. That's why we built Clubrooms. It is 100% free for clubs to participate.

We're here to digitally preserve club histories, capture the stories of our older generation while they're still here to tell them, and celebrate the local legends who were never going to be All Blacks but are absolute royalty in their own community.

For Season 2, we are expanding to feature clubs outside of Auckland while also finishing off the rest of the Auckland region so no local club gets left behind.

You can also now send us stars!