Over the last year or so Taranaki Rugby have been working in the background to get a project up and running that we believe will make a real difference to both rugby and the wider sporting community in Taranaki.

We’ve made some great progress in recent times, to the point where we want to share it with you.

This is Te Whare Pūngao o Ngā-motu (The Energy House of New Plymouth). Taranaki Rugby’s dedicated on-site facility at Stadium Taranaki (formerly Yarrow Stadium).

Background

As you may know, we have operated without our own training base and gym since the East Stand at Stadium Taranaki was deemed earthquake prone in late 2017.

In the time since, we’ve used a space in the Tuson Stand at the New Plymouth Racecourse. While it served a purpose, it wasn’t exactly first class.

It was cold, and small. It meant groups travelling from our home base at Stadium Taranaki, losing training time, juggling extra logistics and missing valuable opportunities to collaborate with our people and the broader community.

We’ve known for some time that the Tuson Stand was going to be demolished, which it was last month.

For more than seven years, Taranaki has been the only top tier New Zealand provincial union that hasn’t had a training facility at its home base.

And so, we are constructing one.

About

Te Whare Pūngao o Ngā-motu is a 525m2 colour steel shed, spanning 35m x 15m in the space next to our offices in the Sport Taranaki building and Field 3 at Stadium Taranaki.

It is being fully funded by Taranaki Rugby and has been planned in collaboration with a range of sporting codes and community groups. No ratepayer funds are being put towards it.

The space will include cardio, strength and stretch areas and a large covered green room. Medical and meeting rooms, shower and toilet facilities are also included in the floor plan along with a large car park nearby.

There will also be the ability to further develop the facility in the future.

The project is endorsed by the Taranaki Facilities Consortium, Sport Taranaki, Sport New Zealand, several regional sports organisations and a number of local community organisations.

We have consulted with the mana whenua of Ngāmotu, Ngāti Te Whiti, who have gifted the name Te Whare Pūngao o Ngā-motu. Appropriately, it means The Energy House of New Plymouth, which evokes a sense of strength, vitality and community.

Collaboration

Te Whare Pūngao o Ngā-motu is a sorely needed rugby facility, but we see its benefits going far beyond just our sport.

Taranaki Rugby will own and manage it and use it as a central home for our rugby community across all levels of our game. It will allow us to fully develop our spiritual home at Stadium Taranaki and connect with our people on a much deeper level.

We also intend to use it to take cross-code collaboration within Taranaki to a level not seen before.

It can become a training base for athletes from a number of codes, including developing athletes as well as a hub for community organisations to use during the day. It will give promising and elite Taranaki sportspeople the ability to rub shoulders, share notes, train together, grow relationships and benefit from being part of a much broader community of athletes.

Sport can be fragmented and isolating at times, and we see a huge opportunity to collaborate, diversify our knowledge and come together.

A range of community and school groups would like to use the space for various forms of physical activity during the day.

Having this facility onsite at Stadium Taranaki will also support attracting major national and international events to the region for rugby and other sporting codes.

Funding

Taranaki Rugby is leading fundraising for the facility, and we have allocated our own cash reserves towards the project. It’s important to reiterate that there is no cost to the ratepayers of Taranaki.

We are incredibly grateful for the support we’ve had from a range of stakeholders, including foundation partners, New Zealand Community Trust and Toi Foundation, and project partners, Grassroots Trust, Air Rescue Services, Four Winds Foundation, Pelorus Trust, One Foundation and the We Care Community Trust.

Other funding applications are currently live and have the potential to complete the funding required for construction. Earthworks have been completed recently, and we are working on a construction timeline as we await funding decisions.

I am really excited about what this facility can do for both rugby, sport and the local community here in Taranaki.

If you have any questions about the project, please don’t hesitate to email: ceo@trfu.co.nz 

Jimmy Fastier

Chief Executive Officer

Taranaki Rugby

Article added: Monday 21 April 2025