![]() Coleman ran a pub in downtown Auckland in the early 1990s that operated gaming machines. ![]() He loves his footy and a fair go so it was only a matter of time before he would get involved with women’s rugby. It’s the story of Chris Coleman, who gave the competition its trophy and whose pub sponsored multiple clubs across the Auckland club scene in the 1990s.Ĭhris Coleman is your typical Kiwi bloke. This story of the Auckland trophy too is the story of a publican who loved the women’s game long before it was cool. The story I was told was that a number of local players worked at the Petone pub so they sponsored the trophy for the competition. That’s why the trophy in Wellington was called the Victoria Tavern before it was renamed the Tia Paasi Memorial Cup. It was publicans though, who saw the merits of the women’s game – in most cases earlier than the provincial unions. Erin Rush, Black Fern #113 and the woman whose name is on our Best and Fairest award in Wellington, will tell you that club rooms being open to serve a pint was a sure-fire way to draw a crowd back in the 1990s. The irony is that most women’s club rugby used to be played on a Sunday, when pubs could only serve folks who were dining. There is a research paper that could be written on the way local pubs poured resources into the early development of women’s club rugby here in Aotearoa. This story was first published on Alice Soper’s Substack newsletter, Alice’s Soapbox. ![]() Ahead of this weekend’s Coleman Shield final between the Ponsonby Fillies and the College Rifle T-Birds, Alice Soper talks to the women’s rugby superfan whose name is on the trophy. ![]()
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