Merit or geography? NZR seek input from fans on future of provincial competition
For the second time in the space of a year, New Zealand Rugby have sought input from fans concerning the future of the game.
Greater access to sports around the world has put pressure on NZR to produce a better quality product for rugby fans. That, coupled with the financial hit taken due to the global coronavirus pandemic, has seen the New Zealand union take a very modern-day approach to planning the sport’s future.
Last year, members of the All Blacks online fan club were surveyed on what they wanted to see from Super Rugby’s impending replacement. Now, the eye has turned to the NPC.
NZ’s National Provincial Competition (which, for sponsorship reasons, was dubbed the Mitre 10 Cup from 2016 until 2020) has gone through a number of changes throughout the competition’s history.
When the NPC was formed in 1976, the New Zealand’s 26 rugby unions were placed into two divisions. The top 11 sides, placed in division one, played for the NPC title while the remaining teams were split into a North Island and a South Island group and attempted to fight their way into the first division.
In 1985, the Island split was removed and a third division was instead introduced. Seven years later, the top division was reduced to 9 teams, allowing three divisions of equal sizes, and finals were introduced.
The next major change didn’t come until 2006, when the competition was revamped completely. The top 14 provinces in New Zealand were ring-fenced from the ‘Heartland’ teams and a number of different formats were tried until the current one was settled on in 2011.
Under the set-up used for the past decade, the teams in the first division teams are split into a Premiership and a Championship. Every teams plays the others within their conference, as well as four teams from the other conference.
Since early last year, there have been suggestions that from 2021, a new format could be adopted which sees the provinces split up by their location instead of their standing.
Confirmation of the new format was expected to given in December but NZR had evidently not finalised their plans.
In the survey sent out this week, fans were asked whether they would prefer the newly proposed format to the one that’s been used for the last 10 years.
What should Super Rugby implement in 2021? A look at the mooted changes for next year. https://t.co/yeg2ne8dmj
— RugbyPass (@RugbyPass) December 16, 2020
The proposal would see Northland, North Harbour, Auckland, Counties Manukau, Waikato, Bay of Plenty and Taranaki (i.e. the Blues and Chiefs feeder unions) play in a Northern division, while Hawke’s Bay, Manawatu, Wellington, Tasman, Canterbury, Otago and Southland (i.e. the Hurricanes, Crusaders and Highlanders feeder unions) form a Southern division.
As with the current set-up, each team would play all their fellow conference members as well as four teams from the other division. A video explaining the format also implied that each province would have a set ‘rival’ from their opposite division which they would play every year, with Canterbury given as the example for Auckland.
The newly proposed format would ensure that every team was always capable of taking out the competition whereas under the current system, the top seven teams are competing for the real prize while the bottom seven are fighting it out for promotion.
Hawke’s Bay were ineligible for the overall title last year but still posted wins against Premiership sides Wellington and Canterbury. Under the proposed system, they would have been able to compete for the overall crown.
This year’s NPC will likely kick off in mid-August, regardless of format. If the status quo is retained, Hawke’s Bay will take North Harbour’s place in the Premiership.
Comments on RugbyPass
Only 1247 days until RWC 2027 starts Bin Smuth🤣Can’t wait to see how unhinged you’re still gonna get between now & then
200 Go to commentsany chance either team will improve on their u20 world cup performances this time around? I assume both sides will be deeply disappointed with how things went.
6 Go to commentsAnother poor articles by a poor journo, nothing new from Ben, at least you are consistently bad lol, geez I will try and watch the match later, clearly Benny was only looking to one end of the pitch, hard to tell whom the Baby Blacks were playing if it wasn’t in the header 😄😄
7 Go to commentsNz should have won. I didn't watch the game, but the ref was at fault and the bounce of the ball and the Bokke used the Bomb squad and the Bokke slow the game down and the Bokke scrum. They should remove the scrum. The Bokke are to strong. Not fair. Nz should have won
7 Go to commentsProbably the worst article on a rugby match I have ever read
200 Go to commentsWho hurt this man.. LoL 😭
200 Go to commentsIt unfortunate for the Jaguares that they became formidable just as super rugby as we knew came to an end. However, the idea of bringing them back is nonsensical. While I enjoyed the Jaguares and the South African flavour of the comp, a selling point of this incarnation of super rugby is that all games are on a decent time for an Aussie audience.
3 Go to commentslol that’s your opinion Ben, All Blacks benefited from a forward pass try, SA played 77 min without a recognised hooker, missed a no try conversion and a penalty could have would have but didn’t
200 Go to commentsBrett, from my distant perspective, I hope you get to keep the Rebels. Any ideas of teams from Japan or Argentina are just crazy. Won’t happen. If you look at logistics, it is much easier to get to LA from Auckland, Brisbane, Melbourne or Sydney than to Buenos Aires. All with direct non-stop daily flights. You may even get some “gringos” to watch the games, with some younger players compared to Giteau and Nonu who still “play” in the area. I think it is virtually impossible to get a competitive Argie team for SR. All Pumas are in Europe, almost all second tier players are also in Europe. Fringe players are in South American pro rugby tournament (and many still in the MLR!) but these players who might be most interested in joining a new Jaguares do not have the skills to compete. As I have been saying since the Jaguares joined, they should have had TWO teams to make logistics for visiting teams better and Argie player development improved as well. Jaguares/Pumas was not ideal. But this is where Pichot and his cronies did not think long enough. Further the country with he new president “No hay Plata” Milei is in a very difficult situation. Galperin, the richest man in Argentina owns the Miami franchise of MLR. I don’t think you can get him to invest in Argentina. Actually, he played rugby himself. He was a fly half. He is worth around $6 billion!
3 Go to commentsWell done Baby Boks we will take the Draw. No 9 senseless long passes in those conditions. let’s move on and hope for some good weather
7 Go to commentsHow did it end a draw. South Africa didn’t score any points as far as I can see
7 Go to commentsNo doubt this will be a fantastic occasion and I plan to be there, but I think the bean counters have won out over the rugby brains. In my opinion, it is foolhardy to give the Black Ferns the experience of playing in front of 60,000+ at Twickenham a year before they might be playing there in a World Cup Final. Better to play France at Twickenham and Black Ferns at Kingsholm. The difference in takings would be miniscule.
1 Go to commentsDom kant
200 Go to commentsBen is a little incel desperately trying to stir the pot and stay relevant. We used to get mad at his articles. Now we just feel sorry for him
200 Go to commentsPerhaps we may need to put an asterisk on NZ’s ‘87 WC win since the Boks weren’t there. You know, just as a reminder. Poor Ben Smith. Go cry somewhere else.
200 Go to commentsNz should have won. I didn't watch the game, but the ref was at fault and the bounce of the ball and the Bokke used the Bomb squad and the Bokke slow the game down and the Bokke scrum. They should remove the scrum. The Bokke are to strong. Not fair. Nz should have won
6 Go to commentsThanks for a much more balanced piece Ned and not that BS that Bin Smuth just posted a short while ago. read this article and then Bin Smuth’s and tell me there isn’t a huge difference🙄
6 Go to commentsWere the Baby Boks part of this game or did the Baby Blacks play themselves?🤔 That man Bin Smuth once again does a little write-up on the game and it is like 95% about the Baby Blacks🤣 Glad he ends off with the Baby Blacks were actually in cruise control for most of the game and weren’t actually playing for the win WTF🤣🤣 Maybe he was expecting the Baby Blacks to run rampant….
7 Go to commentsOne does not expect anything more from Ben Smith who epitomises the worst of New Zealand media arrogance and an inability to balance what he has to say about any team that beats the All Blacks. His reference to context is pathetically thin. He does not comment that Frizell deserved a red card given his blatant manipulation of his body to ensure that he could drop his body weight onto Mbonambi’s lower leg. No mention of the ball lost forward before the All Black’s try (lost in-field of the 5 metre line and gathered beyond). The All Black commitment and effort was superb and there was little in it. Given the Springbok passage to the final and the loss of their hooker in the first three minutes, their resolve and capacity to win their fourth final out of eight attempts (not three out of ten) deserves the praise that has been forthcoming from media around the world, worth reading and listening to. Ben should join his “pundit” friends on TV - he would fit in well. This sort of article reduces any credibility Rugby Pass has ever had. Why persist with this sort of nonsense? The man does his country and a rugby blog a disservice.
200 Go to commentsEtzebeth went on to say: “I would never dream of saying that systems stay in place following a change in captain. To say that would be deeply, deeply, disrespectful of Siya. A while back an Irish person told me they would be fine without Sexton, so I’m just responding to that.”
3 Go to comments