The Upper Clutha Rugby Football Club (UCRFC) is celebrating 125 years of rugby in the Upper Clutha this weekend (May 16-18).

More than 220 people have registered for the weekend’s festivities, including current and former players and members.

“I’m looking forward to reconnecting with people and celebrating the last 125 years,” UCRFC president Gary Read said.

Upper Clutha Rugby Football Club president Gary Read.

Gary played for the club from 2003 to 2007 and has been involved in its administration since.

“The club has grown along with the town; the town has lifted and the club has lifted with it,” he said.

According to the book ‘Mountains, Miners & Musterers - 100 years of Upper Clutha Rugby’, there were rugby teams in Tarras, Hāwea, Wānaka, Cardrona and possibly Luggate in the early nineteen hundreds. 

The current Upper Clutha Rugby Football Club was formed by the union of Tarras and Wānaka in 1970 and a clubrooms erected in 1980.

Festivities begin tonight (Friday May 16) with a social gathering. On Saturday the club will host a day of rugby, finishing with the Upper Clutha premier rugby team, The Rams, playing Maniototo at 1.30pm at the club.

A dinner will be held at the Lake Wānaka Centre on Saturday night for registered attendees. The dinner will be MC’d by television presenter Joe Wheeler and feature special guest speaker Simon Porter, the managing director of sport talent agency Halo.

PHOTOS: Wānaka App