Clinton Rugby Football Club will hold the sale at its grounds in Clinton on Friday next week.
Club president Josh Hurring, of Balclutha, said the sale was being held because the club had been unable to field a premier rugby team this season.
The club entered a team in the southern region premiere grade at the start of the season but had to withdraw due to eight players being injured in the first two games.
"It folded us."
He was one of the injured players, recovering from a slipped disc in his back.
Any remaining players joined other teams in the competition, he said.
The Clinton club paid those players’ subs, in the hope they would return to play for Clinton next season.
A plan was to enter a premier team in the competition next season and celebrate a milestone.
"The main focus is getting a team together and secondary is celebrating 140 years."
The club was launched in 1886 and often had enough players to field three senior men’s team.
He was unaware of any other time in the club’s history it had to withdraw a premier team due to a lack of players.
Any money raised from the sale would be used to recruit players by supporting them.
Ideas floated were providing fuel vouchers to players to get to trainings and games or launching a scholarship programme to encourage students at Telford, or cadets from Jeff Farm, to play for the club.
A player recruitment drive would go beyond the wider Clinton area.
The club had a van, which was used to get players to trainings on Tuesdays and Thursdays and games on Saturdays.
"No distance is too large."
The club’s junior player numbers, a mix of girls and boys, aged 5 to 16, remains strong, he said.
Senior player numbers falling was a trend impacting many rural rugby clubs, he said.
Reasons include it being more common for women to be working on farms, reducing the number of men available to play rugby.
More men were also choosing to not play rugby due to being time-poor with other family commitments, he said.
An idea floated was amalgamating with Owaka Rugby Football Club but the clubs remaining on their own was a preferred outcome.
PGG Wrightson would run the auction and split any commission with the club.
Items provided for sale so far includes a tractor, a motorbike, a gorse spray tank, bale feeders and a grubber.
He hoped players would join the premier men’s team, as it was an important way for people to connect in the community.
"It is not all about scoring tries, a lot of it is about blokes catching up in winter."
