Select Edition

Northern Northern
Southern Southern
Global Global
NZ NZ

Merit or geography? NZR seek input from fans on future of provincial competition

By Tom Vinicombe
Ash Dixon. (Photo by Kerry Marshall/Getty Images)

For the second time in the space of a year, New Zealand Rugby have sought input from fans concerning the future of the game.

ADVERTISEMENT

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.

Video Spacer

Rugby Australia CEO Andy Marinos, NSW Waratahs captain Jake Gordon and Stan Sport commentator Allana Ferguson have spoken at the Super Rugby AU launch event held at Taronga Zoo in Sydney.

Video Spacer

Rugby Australia CEO Andy Marinos, NSW Waratahs captain Jake Gordon and Stan Sport commentator Allana Ferguson have spoken at the Super Rugby AU launch event held at Taronga Zoo in Sydney.

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.

ADVERTISEMENT

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.

ADVERTISEMENT

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.

ADVERTISEMENT

Join free

Aotearoa Rugby Podcast | Episode 6

Sam Warburton | The Big Jim Show | Full Episode

Japan Rugby League One | Sungoliath v Eagles | Full Match Replay

Japan Rugby League One | Spears v Wild Knights | Full Match Replay

Boks Office | Episode 10 | Six Nations Final Round Review

Aotearoa Rugby Podcast | How can New Zealand rugby beat this Ireland team

Beyond 80 | Episode 5

Rugby Europe Men's Championship Final | Georgia v Portugal | Full Match Replay

Trending on RugbyPass

Comments

Join free and tell us what you really think!

Sign up for free
ADVERTISEMENT

Latest Features

Comments on RugbyPass

J
Jon 5 hours ago
Jake White: Are modern rugby players actually better?

This is the problem with conservative mindsets and phycology, and homogenous sports, everybody wants to be the same, use the i-win template. Athlete wise everyone has to have muscles and work at the gym to make themselves more likely to hold on that one tackle. Do those players even wonder if they are now more likely to be tackled by that player as a result of there “work”? Really though, too many questions, Jake. Is it better Jake? Yes, because you still have that rugby of ole that you talk about. Is it at the highest International level anymore? No, but you go to your club or checkout your representative side and still engage with that ‘beautiful game’. Could you also have a bit of that at the top if coaches encouraged there team to play and incentivized players like Damian McKenzie and Ange Capuozzo? Of course we could. Sadly Rugby doesn’t, or didn’t, really know what direction to go when professionalism came. Things like the state of northern pitches didn’t help. Over the last two or three decades I feel like I’ve been fortunate to have all that Jake wants. There was International quality Super Rugby to adore, then the next level below I could watch club mates, pulling 9 to 5s, take on the countries best in representative rugby. Rugby played with flair and not too much riding on the consequences. It was beautiful. That largely still exists today, but with the world of rugby not quite getting things right, the picture is now being painted in NZ that that level of rugby is not required in the “pathway” to Super Rugby or All Black rugby. You might wonder if NZR is right and the pathway shouldn’t include the ‘amateur’, but let me tell you, even though the NPC might be made up of people still having to pull 9-5s, we know these people still have dreams to get out of that, and aren’t likely to give them. They will be lost. That will put a real strain on the concept of whether “visceral thrill, derring-do and joyful abandon” type rugby will remain under the professional level here in NZ. I think at some point that can be eroded as well. If only wanting the best athlete’s at the top level wasn’t enough to lose that, shutting off the next group, or level, or rugby players from easy access to express and showcase themselves certainly will. That all comes back around to the same question of professionalism in rugby and whether it got things right, and rugby is better now. Maybe the answer is turning into a “no”?

35 Go to comments
j
john 8 hours ago
Will the Crusaders' decline spark a slow death for New Zealand rugby?

But here in Australia we were told Penney was another gun kiwi coach, for the Tahs…….and yet again it turned out the kiwi coach was completely useless. Another con job on Australian rugby. As was Robbie Deans, as was Dave Rennie. Both coaches dumped from NZ and promoted to Australia as our saviour. And the Tahs lap them up knowing they are second rate and knowing that under pressure when their short comings are exposed in Australia as well, that they will fall in below the largest most powerful province and choose second rate Tah players to save their jobs. As they do and exactly as Joe Schmidt will do. Gauranteed. Schmidt was dumped by NZ too. That’s why he went overseas. That why kiwi coaches take jobs in Australia, to try and prove they are not as bad as NZ thought they were. Then when they get found out they try and ingratiate themselves to NZ again by dragging Australian teams down with ridiculous selections and game plans. NZ rugby’s biggest problem is that it can’t yet transition from MCaw Cheatism. They just don’t know how to try and win on your merits. It is still always a contest to see how much cheating you can get away with. Without a cheating genius like McCaw, they are struggling. This I think is why my wise old mate in NZ thinks Robertson will struggle. The Crusaders are the nursery of McCaw Cheatism. Sean Fitzpatrick was probably the father of it. Robertson doesn’t know anything else but other countries have worked it out.

33 Go to comments
A
Adrian 10 hours ago
Will the Crusaders' decline spark a slow death for New Zealand rugby?

Thanks Nick The loss of players to OS, injury and retirement is certainly not helping the Crusaders. Ditto the coach. IMO Penny is there to hold the fort and cop the flak until new players and a new coach come through,…and that's understood and accepted by Penny and the Crusaders hierarchy. I think though that what is happening with the Crusaders is an indicator of what is happening with the other NZ SRP teams…..and the other SRP teams for that matter. Not enough money. The money has come via the SR competition and it’s not there anymore. It's in France, Japan and England. Unless or until something is done to make SR more SELLABLE to the NZ/Australia Rugby market AND the world rugby market the $s to keep both the very best players and the next rung down won't be there. They will play away from NZ more and more. I think though that NZ will continue to produce the players and the coaches of sufficient strength for NZ to have the capacity to stay at the top. Whether they do stay at the top as an international team will depend upon whether the money flowing to SRP is somehow restored, or NZ teams play in the Japan comp, or NZ opts to pick from anywhere. As a follower of many sports I’d have to say that the organisation and promotion of Super Rugby has been for the last 20 years closest to the worst I’ve ever seen. This hasn't necessarily been caused by NZ, but it’s happened. Perhaps it can be fixed, perhaps not. The Crusaders are I think a symptom of this, not the cause

33 Go to comments
TRENDING
TRENDING 'It's an All Black discussion': The pair of young Hurricanes tipped for black jerseys The pair of young Hurricanes tipped for black jerseys
Search