2006 proved another successful season for Wellington rugby teams, with both the Vodafone Wellington Lions and the Hurricanes reaching the finals of the newly restructured National Provincial Championship Air New Zealand Cup and Rebel Sport Super 14 competitions respectively. Additionally, the Wellington Pride women's rugby team broke Auckland's stranglehold on the Women's NPC for a first ever title win and the Wellington Sevens side reached the final of the NPC Sevens Tournament.
The Wellington Sevens team kick-started a terrific year in Queenstown in January, winning their pool on day one and then beating the traditionally strong North Harbour and Otago sides in their Cup quarterfinal and semi-final on day two. They eventually lost to Auckland in the final, but Lote Raikabula, Cory Jane and Nigel Hunt each made the Tournament team and went on to win gold medals for New Zealand at the Commonwealth games in Melbourne.
The Hurricanes had their best ever season, reaching the final of the Super 14. The Hurricanes won eleven games from 15 played, with highlights being the their first ever win at Loftus Versfeld in Pretoria against the Bulls and wins in consecutive weeks over the Waratahs including a 16-14 semi-final victory over them at Westpac Stadium. Unfortunately the final was a truly bizarre affair, a miasma of mist that descended on Christchurch ruining the final and the Crusaders scoring the game's only try to take the title 19-12.
The ANZC's new format meant the addition of four new teams and the ushering in of pool play and repercharges and a ‘Top Six', with points earned in the first round carried over in a seedings system for the second round.
The Lions finished second in their pool, but their points carried over to the Top Six meant they qualified fifth in a weaker pool than the other. During the season they played and beat Canterbury twice, Ma'a Nonu scoring at the death to give them a 26-24 win in the first of these fixtues. They beat Canterbury again in the quarterfinal, defeated Auckland at Eden Park in the semi-final, but were beaten at the last hurdle by Waikato in the final 31-37.
The final against Waikato signalled the end of an era for outgoing coaches John Plumtree and Chris Boyd, who together took the team to three finals in four years and Plumtree was awarded Coach of the Year. Luke Mahoney, Thomas Waldrom, Rodney So'oialo and Shannon Paku all played their 50th games for the Lions in 2006 and Tana Umaga ended the season on 96 caps.
The Pride won their NPC by upsetting Auckland 11-10 in the final, after beating Otago 22-15 in their semi-final the previous week.
Northern United were the outstanding club team, winning both the Swindale Shield and Jubilee Cup and becoming the first team since Marist St. Pat's to achieve this ‘double' in the same season. The Hardham Cup was extraordinary close, with Upper Hutt beating newcomers Wainuiomata in the final, but the top four and the promotion-relegation outcome wasn't decided until the final whistle of the last set of matches in the round-robin. In the end Johnsonville were relegated to Senior 1 for 2007 but it could have just as easily have been Upper Hutt, Wainuiomata, Oriental-Rongotai or Western Suburbs.
Financially, the WRFU recovered a surplus of $657,999. The WRFU committed to distributing a minimum of $250,000 to Wellington's rugby clubs in each of the following three seasons and in 2006 the total was $300,000.