National Provincial Championship (2006–present)

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For the history of New Zealand provincial competition before 2006, see National Provincial Championship (1976–2005).

Bunnings NPC
Current season, competition or edition:
Current sports event 2021 Bunnings NPC
Bunnings-npc-logo.png
FormerlyAir New Zealand Cup (2006–09)
ITM Cup (2010–15)
Mitre 10 Cup (2016–20)
SportRugby union
Founded2006; 15 years ago (2006)
Inaugural season2006
CEOSteve Tew
No. of teams14
CountryNew Zealand
HeadquartersWellington, New Zealand
Most recent
champion(s)		Tasman
(2nd title)
Most titlesCanterbury
(9 titles)
TV partner(s)Sky Sport
Sponsor(s)Bunnings Warehouse
Related
competitions		Farah Palmer Cup
Heartland Championship
Official websitehttps://www.provincial.rugby/

The National Provincial Championship (NPC), known for sponsorship reasons as the Bunnings NPC, is a professional rugby union competition for New Zealand provincial unions consisting of 14 teams, divided equally between the Premiership Division and the Championship Division. The NPC remains the second highest level of professional rugby union in New Zealand, after Super Rugby. The NPC's 11-week regular and finals season runs from two weeks after Super Rugby ends to the third week after Labour Day, with each team playing 10 games and having one week playing twice. Following the conclusion of the regular season, four teams from each division advance to their respective play-offs, a single-elimination tournament of semi-finals and final.

The current NPC competition was formed in 2006 as the Air New Zealand Cup, as the replacement of the original National Provincial Championship for the 2006 season. The New Zealand Rugby Union (NZRU) introduced the beginning of a professional era, announcing New Zealand's first ever professional rugby competition following the 2005 season, following the creation of the 14 new professional unions. The team with the most NPC championships is Auckland Rugby Union with fifteen (with two titles after the National Provincial Championship era); the team with the most modern day-NPC championships is Canterbury Rugby Union with nine. The current champions are Tasman Rugby Union, who defeated Auckland 13–12 in the 2020 final.

History[]

The 2006 reorganisation of New Zealand provincial rugby replaced the NPC's former three-division setup with two competitions. This differs from the original two-division setup used in the NPC from its creation in 1976 to 1984 in two key ways. The two current competitions are nationwide, while the original NPC Division Two was split on a North Island/South Island basis, and the NZRU ruled that there would initially be no promotion or relegation between the Air New Zealand Cup and Heartland Championship, a feature that had always been present in the former NPC. The number of teams was reduced to 26, as the Marlborough and Nelson Bays unions merged to form the new Tasman union.

The 2006 expansion of the Super 12 and Tri Nations Series had a major effect on the Air New Zealand Cup. This expansion created the Super 14, adding two extra fixtures to that competition, and also added two more Tri-Nations matches for the All Blacks in non-World Cup years. Because of these changes, it was intended for players in the All Blacks selection pool to make only limited appearances in the Air New Zealand Cup.

Original National Provincial Championship[]

Further information: National Provincial Championship (1976–2005)

Before 2006, a number of competitions involving regional and provincial rugby union teams had taken shape in New Zealand. The earliest of these was the National Provincial Championship, which was launched in 1976 and continued until 2006.

The competition was launched as the National Provincial Championship in 1976. The competition, was the major domestic rugby competition in New Zealand. The National Provincial Championship saw many alterations to its format and brand. It was first contested in 1976, and although the basic format of Division One was much the same from then until the 2006 reorganisation, there were a number of changes to the lower divisions. The only change before 2006 was in 1998, when the number of teams in each division was changed to ten in Division One, nine in Division Two, and eight in Division Three. Having an even number of teams in Division One removed the necessity for byes. Starting that year, automatic promotion/relegation between the top two divisions was ended. In its place, the winner of Division Two played a promotion-relegation match against the bottom club in Division One to determine whether the clubs would switch places. Through 2002, this match was hosted by the bottom team in Division One, but the site was changed in 2003 to the home field of the Division Two champion. Auckland were the most successful team in the championship, having won 15 of the 30 series.

Air New Zealand Cup: 2006–09[]

The inaugural 2006 season was played by 14 teams over 13 weeks from 28 July until the grand final on 21 October. The inaugural format saw the season split into two rounds. In round one teams split into two pools and played everybody in their pool as well as a bye week. In round two the top three teams from each pool went into the top six, which faced every team they did not play in round one Every other team was split into either Repêchage A and Repêchage B, and the winners of each repêchage filled the two remaining spots for the quarter-finals with the top six. The quarter-finals were followed by semifinals and a grand final. The new competition saw the introduction of four teams elevated from Division two of the 2005 NPC; Counties Manukau, Hawke's Bay, Manawatu and Tasman (the amalgamation of the Nelson Bays and Marlborough unions). The competition was won by Waikato 37–31, after they beat Wellington in the Grand final in front of a capacity crowd of 25,000 fans at Waikato Stadium. The leading try-scorer was emerging star Richard Kahui from Waikato with eight tries, and the leading point-scorer was Jimmy Gopperth from Wellington with 121 points.

The 2007 season saw the NZRU dumping the pool system. The new format opened with a 10-week round-robin where each team missed out on playing three of the other teams. The finals format was not changed from 2006, with the quarter-finals, semi-finals and a grand final. The champion was Auckland, defeating Wellington in Wellington's second successive grand final. Auckland finished the season at the top of the points table with a record 48 competition points, winning all ten matches. Jimmy Gopperth again finished as leading points scorer with a record 155, while Brent Ward from Auckland was the top try scorer with eight tries.

The 2008 champion was Canterbury, handing Wellington its third consecutive grand final defeat in a low-scoring 7-6 game. Blair Stewart from Southland was the leading points-scorer, with 105 points, while Wellington's Hosea Gear was top try scorer with a record 14 tries. In August, the New Zealand Rugby Union announced that the Tasman and Northland teams would be relegated to lower competition after the completion of the season for failure to meet criteria which included financial stability, population, training, development, playing history, and administration. This decision was reversed in September, with Tasman and Northland remaining in the competition for two more years [1]

2009 saw more changes in the format. The season, which ran from 30 July to 25 October, was changed to a straight round-robin tournament where every team faced the others once over 13 weeks. Quarter-finals were dropped, with the top four regular season teams advancing directly to the semi-finals and the winners from each semi moving to the grand final. Regular season points were earned as per the Rugby Union Bonus Points System; 4 points for a win, 2 points for a draw and 1 point for scoring 4 tries or for losing by 7 points or less. Semi-finals were played between four teams, the teams are seeded first to fourth and the two highest seeded teams play at home against the two lowest seeded teams meaning first plays fourth and second plays third. The highest seed still remaining in the grand final played at home.

ITM Cup: 2010–15[]

Makos v Southland 2013.jpg

The 2010 ITM Cup was the 34th provincial rugby union competition, the fifth since the competition reconstruction in 2006 and the first under the new sponsor of ITM. It ran for 15 weeks, with 13 used for a round robin and 2 for the finals, from 29 July to 5 November.

Changes in 2011 see the 14 teams split into two divisions, with the top seven playing in the Premiership, the rest in the Championship. The two divisions play each other, though their ten-game round-robin season sees each team playing only four games per year against teams in the 'other' division. Other key principles introduced was that the competitions must include Super Rugby players, have a stand-alone window, feature a full round-robin and play-offs, have promotion/relegation, guarantee four and five home games per team, be completed within a 10- to 12-week window and conclude by the end of October.

Mitre 10 Cup: 2016–20[]

In December 2015, Mitre 10 was announced as the new sponsor of all of New Zealand's major domestic rugby union competitions effective with the 2016 season. This included the top-level men's competition, formerly known as the ITM Cup; the second-level men's Heartland Championship, most recently sponsored by Pink Batts; the Women's Provincial Championship; and the Jock Hobbs Memorial National U19 tournament. This deal ran through to the 2020 season and was not renewed.[2]

Bunnings NPC: 2021–[]

In 2021 Bunnings Warehouse replaced Mitre 10 as the competition's main naming sponsor in a 3-year deal. The competition format of the Bunnings NPC is the same as that of the Mitre 10 Cup for the 2021 season.

Current teams[]

Locations of the 2021 Bunnings NPC teams
         Orange pog.svg Premiership Division
         Black pog.svg Championship Division

The NPC consists of 14 rugby teams divided into two divisions of 7 teams in each. Each NPC union is granted a professional side. Each team is under the governance of their union, they are the top male representative team that the union has to offer. Unions are based in regions across New Zealand, while the teams have not changed since the launch of the competition in 2006.

Throughout the championship, only two unions weren't among the other 12 that first competed in 1976. North Harbour established in 1985, being one of New Zealand's youngest provincial rugby unions. They joined the provincial rugby league by winning the third division in its first season, following promotion to the first division in 1987.[3] Tasman is New Zealand's youngest provincial union. Established in 2006, it brought together the Nelson Bays and Marlborough unions. Nelson Bays amalgamated with Marlborough following the restructuring of New Zealand's provincial championship in 2006.[4]

Whilst having new additions to the competition, another two unions were renamed throughout the NPC era. North Auckland Rugby Union established in 1920, changed its name to the Northland Rugby Football Union in 1994.[5] In 1955 South Auckland Counties was formed with full union status. The name was shortened to Counties the following year and in 1996 it became the Counties Manukau Rugby Football Union.[6]

In 2008, Northland and Tasman were chosen by the New Zealand Rugby Union as teams to drop out of the Cup as the union restructures its domestic competition. Tasman had expected to be cut, especially after Marlborough had said it wanted to split from Nelson Bays and go it alone in the Heartland Championship.[7]

Team Union City Established Stadium(s) Capacity Head coach(es) Colour(s)
Auckland ARU Auckland 1883; 138 years ago (1883) Eden Park 50,000 Alama Ieremia
(fourth season) 		Auckland colours, Air NZ Cup.png
Bay of Plenty Steamers BOPRU Tauranga 1911; 110 years ago (1911) Rotorua International Stadium 26,000 Daryl Gibson
(first season) 		Bopcolours.png
Tauranga Domain 5,000
Canterbury CRFU Christchurch 1879; 142 years ago (1879) Orangetheory Stadium 18,000 Mark Brown and Reuben
Thorne (second season) 		CanterburyColours.png
Counties Manukau Steelers CMRFU Pukekohe 1955; 66 years ago (1955) Navigation Homes Stadium 12,000 Tai Lavea
(second season) 		CountiesAirNZ.png
Hawke's Bay Magpies HBRU Napier 1884; 137 years ago (1884) McLean Park 19,700 Mark Ozich
(fourth season) 		Hawkes Bay Air NZ Cup colours.png
Manawatū Turbos MRU Palmerston North 1886; 135 years ago (1886) Central Energy Trust Arena 15,000 Peter Russell
(third season) 		ManawatuTurbosColours.png
North Harbour NHRU Auckland 1985; 36 years ago (1985) QBE Stadium 25,000 Ben Afeaki and Daniel
Halangahu (first season) 		NorthHarbourRugby.png
Northland Taniwha NRU Whangārei 1920; 101 years ago (1920) Semenoff Stadium 30,000 George Konia
(second season) 		NLTaniwha.png
Otago ORFU Dunedin 1881; 140 years ago (1881) Forsyth Barr Stadium 30,748 Tom Donnelly
(second season) 		Otagorugby.png
Southland Stags RS Invercargill 1887; 134 years ago (1887) Rugby Park Stadium 20,000 Dale MacLeod
(second season) 		SouthlandRugby.png
Tasman Mako TRU Nelson 2006; 15 years ago (2006) Lansdowne Park 15,000 Andrew Goodman
(third season) 		TasmanMakosRugbyColours.png
Trafalgar Park 18,000
Taranaki Bulls TRFU New Plymouth 1885; 136 years ago (1885) Pukekura Park 4,000 Neil Barnes
(first season) 		TaranakiRugby.png
TET Stadium & Events Centre 3,000
Waikato Mooloos WRU Hamilton 1921; 100 years ago (1921) FMG Stadium Waikato 25,800 Ross Filipo
(first season) 		Mooloo.png
Wellington Lions WRFU Wellington 1879; 142 years ago (1879) Sky Stadium 34,500 Leo Crowley
(second season) 		Wellington Lions colours.png

Format and sponsorship[]

Format[]

The NPC competition has changed a number of times. There have been up to three Divisions, with promotion/relegation between the two bottom divisions. Since 2006 there have been semi-finals and a final in each Division. Winners receive four competition points; if the game was a draw two points are awarded to each team. The Rugby union bonus points system is also used, where any team scoring four or more tries or losing by less than seven points receives an extra competition point. The top four teams at the end of the round-robin phase then played semifinals – the first placed team hosting the fourth team, and the second team hosting the third team. The two winners played the final at the home ground of the top surviving seed.

From 2013 onwards, the NPC has two Divisions, the Premiership and the Championship, each with seven teams. All teams play all other teams in their own Division and four teams from the other Division. This keeps up some of the traditional provincial rivalries.

Naming rights[]

From 2006 to 2010, airline and flag carrier of New Zealand Air New Zealand had naming rights and the competition was referred to as the Air New Zealand Cup.

In November 2015, provincial rugby sponsor ITM has been red-carded for the 2016 series. The building supplies company began its involvement in 2006, backing the national provincial series and the Heartland Championship. That sponsorship rose to competition-naming rights in 2010 when the company stepped up as major sponsor after the previous group withdrew. The ITM Cup, as it became known, started its six-season schedule. That deal ended for the 2016 season but the company wanted to renew its sponsorship. ITM put in a bid but had been told by the New Zealand Rugby Union that it had not been successful. ITM did not get a chance to match the investment from the new sponsor and had not been given any reason why it was overlooked for the twin provincial series for the next year.[8]

New Zealand-owned home improvement and garden retailer, Mitre 10 took over sponsorship in 2016 after they were announced the new title sponsor for the national domestic championship. With the inclusion of the Women's Provincial Championship and support of the Jock Hobbs Memorial National Under 19 tournament, Mitre 10 became the first sponsor of all major fifteens domestic rugby competitions in New Zealand.[9]

Ahead of the 2021 season, Bunnings Warehouse took over the sponsorship of the competition on a three-year deal, reverting the competition name back to the National Provincial Championship. The competition will be known as the Bunnings NPC. Bunnings will also sponsor the Farah Palmer Cup, Heartland Championship and the newly formed Super Rugby Aotearoa U20 competition.[10]

  • Logo's

  • 2006–2009

  • 2010–2015

  • 2016–2020

  • 2021–present

List of champions[]

Tasman gaining promotion in 2013.

The NPC final is an annual New Zealand Rugby game that determines the champion of the Rugby Cup. The contest is held in a New Zealand city, chosen after the semi-finals, whom the highest seed semi-final winner is declared home advantage. Waikato defeated Wellington in the first revamped NPC Championship Game.

Before the 2006 revamp of the league, the National Provincial Championship was contested between three divisions, division one would be crowned and named the winner. Since 2011, the Premiership and Championship divisions were introduced. The winner of the Premiership Division are named the competition champion, whereas the Championship Division winner wins promotion to the Premiership to have a chance of holding the Rugby Cup and be crowned champions. So far five unions have gained promotion. Hawke's Bay twice, while Counties Manukau, Manawatu, North Harbour, Tasman, Waikato and Wellington all have been honoured once.

Canterbury have won the most finals with nine championships, while Auckland and Tasman have two and Taranaki and Waikato have one win. Canterbury has the most final appearances with ten, they also have the most consecutive appearances with six wins in a row from 2008 to 2013. Wellington are the only other team to have at least four consecutive appearances: 2006–09. Wellington have also lost a record of six finals, while Tasman and Auckland have lost three, Waikato have lost two and Canterbury losing once in 2018, the first time they've lost a final in their ten appearances. Taranaki are the only union to have a perfect record winning their only finals appearance in 2014.

Final Date Winning team Score Losing team Venue City Ref
1. 21 October 2006 Waikato
(1, 1–0) 		37–31 Wellington
(1, 0–1) 		Waikato Stadium Hamilton [11]
2. 24 October 2007 Auckland
(1, 1–0) 		23–14 Wellington
(2, 0–2) 		Eden Park Auckland [12]
3. 24 October 2008 Canterbury
(1, 1–0) 		7–6 Wellington
(3, 0–3) 		Westpac Stadium Wellington [13]
4. 7 November 2009 Canterbury
(2, 2–0) 		28–20 Wellington
(4, 0–4) 		AMI Stadium Christchurch [14]
5. 5 November 2010 Canterbury
(3, 3–0) 		33–13 Waikato
(2, 1–1) 		AMI Stadium Christchurch [15]
6. 3 November 2011 Canterbury
(4, 4–0) 		12–3 Waikato
(3, 1–2) 		Waikato Stadium Hamilton [16]
7. 27 October 2012 Canterbury
(5, 5–0) 		31–18 Auckland
(2, 1–1) 		AMI Stadium (Addington) Christchurch [17]
8. 26 October 2013 Canterbury
(6, 6–0) 		29–13 Wellington
(5, 0–5) 		Westpac Stadium Wellington [18]
9. 25 October 2014 Taranaki
(1, 1–0) 		36–32 Tasman
(1, 0–1) 		Yarrow Stadium New Plymouth [19]
10. 24 October 2015 Canterbury
(7, 7–0) 		25–23 Auckland
(3, 1–2) 		AMI Stadium (Addington) Christchurch [20]
11. 29 October 2016 Canterbury
(8, 8–0) 		43–27 Tasman
(2, 0–2) 		AMI Stadium (Addington) Christchurch [21]
12. 28 October 2017 Canterbury
(9, 9–0) 		35–13 Tasman
(3, 0–3) 		AMI Stadium (Addington) Christchurch [22]
13. 27 October 2018 Auckland
(4, 2–2) 		40–33 Canterbury
(10, 9–1) 		Eden Park Auckland [23]
14. 26 October 2019 Tasman
(4, 1–3) 		31–14 Wellington
(6, 0–6) 		Trafalgar Park Nelson [24]
15. 28 November 2020 Tasman
(5, 2–3) 		13–12 Auckland
(5, 2–3) 		Eden Park Auckland [25]

Finals appearances by union[]

In the sortable table below, teams are ordered first by number of appearances, then by number of wins, and finally by season of first appearance. In the "Season(s)" column, bold years indicate winning seasons, and italic years indicate games not yet completed.

Appear­ances Team Wins Losses Winning
percentage 		Season(s)
10 Canterbury 9 1 .900 2008, 2009, 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2015, 2016, 2017, 2018
6 Wellington 0 6 .000 2006, 2007, 2008, 2009, 2013, 2019
5 Tasman 2 3 .400 2014, 2016, 2017, 2019, 2020
5 Auckland 2 3 .400 2007, 2012, 2015, 2018, 2020
3 Waikato 1 2 .333 2006, 2010, 2011
1 Taranaki 1 0 1.000 2014

Other provincial honours[]

The Air New Zealand Cup was unveiled by New Zealand Rugby Union Deputy Chief Executive Steve Tew and Air New Zealand Chief Executive Rob Fyfe at the official launch of the Air New Zealand Cup competition in Auckland. The trophy stands 45 cm tall and weighs 3.9 kilograms. It was hand forged from 2.7 kilograms of sterling silver by master silversmith Thorkild Hansen. The inside of the cup is gilded with gold. Waihi stone carver Jeff Beckwith handcrafted the polished stone base from black basalt quarried from the Bombay Hills.[26]

Ranfurly Shield[]

Main article: Ranfurly Shield
Ranfurlyshield.jpg

The Ranfurly Shield, colloquially known as the Log o' Wood, is perhaps the most prestigious trophy in New Zealand's domestic rugby union competition. First presented to Auckland in 1902, the Shield is based on a challenge system, rather than a league or knockout competition as with most football trophies. The holding union must defend the Shield in challenge matches, and a successful challenger becomes the new holder of the Shield. The Shield holder at the end of each season is required to accept at least seven challenges for the following year. All home games during league play, but not during knockout playoffs, in the NPC or Heartland Championship are automatic challenges. The remaining Shield defences must be made up of challenges from unions in the other domestic competition. For example, since North Harbour, an Air New Zealand Cup team, held the Shield at the end of the 2006 season despite losing their home quarter-final to Otago, they were forced to defend the Shield against Heartland Championship teams during the 2007 pre-season. Having successfully done so, all their home fixtures in the round-robin phase were Shield defences until they lost the shield to Waikato. The Shield is currently held by Hawke's Bay.

Inter-union trophies[]

Date Winning team Score Losing team Trophy Ref
13 August 2021 North Harbour 14–6
(details) 		Counties Manukau Lion Red Challenge Cup
(Inaugurated unknown) 		[27]
8 August 2021 Auckland 35–24
(details) 		Canterbury Supporters' Club Cup
(Inaugurated unknown) 		[28]
7 August 2021 Otago 26–19
(details) 		Southland Donald Stuart Memorial Shield
(Inaugurated unknown) 		[29]
14 November 2020 Wellington 31–5
(details) 		Manawatu Coronation Cup
(Inaugurated 1953; 68 years ago (1953)) 		[30]
1 November 2020 Bay of Plenty 22–17
(details) 		Hawke's Bay MacRae-Shelford Bay Cup
(Inaugurated 2017; 4 years ago (2017)) 		[31]
31 October 2020 Auckland 31–10
(details) 		Waikato Stan Thomas Memorial Trophy
(Inaugurated 1975; 46 years ago (1975)) 		[32]
30 October 2020 Otago 23–16
(details) 		Canterbury Payne Trophy
(Inaugurated 1922; 99 years ago (1922)) 		[33]
25 October 2020 Wellington 53–20
(details) 		Counties Manukau Jonah Tali Lomu Memorial Trophy
(Inaugurated 2016; 5 years ago (2016)) 		[34]
25 October 2020 Waikato 27–20
(details) 		Taranaki Ryan Wheeler Memorial Trophy
(Inaugurated 2001; 20 years ago (2001)) 		[35]
24 October 2020 North Harbour 23–22
(details) 		Auckland Brian Purdy Battle of the Bridge Memorial Trophy
(Inaugurated 2002; 19 years ago (2002)) 		[36]
Newstalk ZB Trans Harbour Trophy
(Inaugurated 1986; 35 years ago (1986))
24 October 2020 Hawke's Bay 47–12
(details) 		Manawatu Kel Tremain Memorial Trophy
(Inaugurated 1993; 28 years ago (1993)) 		[37]
3 October 2020 Canterbury 31–26
(details) 		Wellington Harry Saundercock Memorial Trophy
(Inaugurated 1965; 56 years ago (1965)) 		[38]
2 October 2020 Auckland 20–16
(details) 		Bay of Plenty John Drake Boot Memorial Trophy
(Inaugurated 2009; 12 years ago (2009)) 		[39]
20 September 2020 Wellington 39–21
(details) 		Auckland Fred Lucas Memorial Trophy
(Inaugurated unknown) 		[40]
13 September 2020 Taranaki 36–29
(details) 		Bay of Plenty Peter Burke Trophy
(Inaugurated 2012; 9 years ago (2012)) 		[41]
12 September 2020 Auckland 38–6
(details) 		Otago Lindsay Colling Memorial Trophy
(Inaugurated 2005; 16 years ago (2005)) 		[42]
11 September 2020 Canterbury 43–29
(details) 		North Harbour Kevin Gimblett Memorial Trophy
(Inaugurated 2005; 16 years ago (2005)) 		[43]
12 October 2018 Wellington 34–10
(details) 		Taranaki John F. Henning Trophy
(Inaugurated unknown) 		[44]

Player of the year[]

In 2017, New Zealand Rugby announced that the player of the year in the NPC will receive the Duane Monkley medal named in honour of the Waikato great, playing 135 matches for the province between 1987 and 1996. The Player of the Year awards will be determined by a season-points system, with match officials picking their players of the match awarding three points, two points and one point for the game's top three performers.

Prior to 2017 it was simply awarded to the outstanding Player of the Year chosen by a panel of committee members, former players and media representatives.[45]

Year Winner Position Team Ref
2006 Richard Kahui Centre Waikato [46]
2007 Isa Nacewa Centre Auckland [47]
2008 Jamie Mackintosh Prop Southland [48]
2009 Mike Delany First five-eighth Bay of Plenty [49]
2010 Robbie Fruean Centre Canterbury [50]
2011 Aaron Cruden First five-eighth Manawatu [51]
2012 Robbie Fruean Centre Canterbury [52]
2013 Andrew Ellis Half-back Canterbury [53]
2014 Seta Tamanivalu Centre Taranaki [54]
2015 George Moala Centre Auckland [55]
2016 Jordie Barrett Fullback Canterbury [56]
2017 Jack Goodhue Centre Northland [57]
2018 Luke Romano Lock Canterbury [58]
2019 Chase Tiatia Fullback Bay of Plenty [59]
2020 Folau Fakatava Half-back Hawke's Bay [60]

Salary cap[]

In 2015 the minimum value of any contract is $18,000, paid regardless of whether the individual plays a single game or not, with that payment counting towards the salary cap. No union can spend more than $1.025 million on salaries. The maximum value of any individual contract cannot exceed $55,000 a season. Provincial unions are reimbursed by the NZRU $50,000 for every contracted All Black on their books who goes to the 2015 World Cup. If that All Black becomes available for any reason, the union has to pay back a pro-rata fee to the NZRU to gain access to the player. All Blacks unavailable due to test commitments do not count towards the salary cap.[61]

Club competitions[]

Each respective province competing in the NPC has a number of their own club leagues, which feed into NPC teams. In New Zealand, the NPC is the most prominent domestic competition below the Super Rugby, in which all the respective Unions are also aligned with Super Rugby sides.

See also[]

References[]

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  3. ^ "North Harbour rugby". New Zealand History. 22 February 2017. Retrieved 22 February 2017.
  4. ^ "Tasman rugby". New Zealand History. 22 February 2017. Retrieved 22 February 2017.
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  6. ^ "Counties Manukau rugby". New Zealand History. 22 February 2017. Retrieved 22 February 2017.
  7. ^ "Rugby: Axed provinces eye legal fight". Otago Daily News. 12 August 2008. Retrieved 22 February 2017.
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  14. ^ "Canterbury edge out Wellington for Cup glory". ESPN. 7 November 2009. Retrieved 12 August 2021.
  15. ^ "Canterbury celebrate stunning hat-trick". ESPN. 5 November 2010. Retrieved 12 August 2021.
  16. ^ "Canterbury clinch ITM Cup crown". ESPN. 3 September 2011. Retrieved 12 August 2021.
  17. ^ "Canterbury down Auckland for provincial glory". ESPN. 27 October 2012. Retrieved 12 August 2021.
  18. ^ "Canterbury claim sixth successive title". ESPN. 25 October 2013. Retrieved 12 August 2021.
  19. ^ "Taranaki crowned champions of New Zealand". ESPN. 24 October 2014. Retrieved 12 August 2021.
  20. ^ "Canterbury hold nerve to pip Auckland in dramatic NPC premiership final". Stuff. 24 October 2015. Retrieved 12 August 2021.
  21. ^ "Canterbury win eighth NPC title since 2008 after beating Tasman in Christchurch". Stuff. 29 October 2016. Retrieved 12 August 2021.
  22. ^ "Canterbury too strong for brave Tasman side in Mitre 10 Cup showdown". Stuff. 28 October 2017. Retrieved 12 August 2021.
  23. ^ "Auckland champions after dramatic grand final comeback victory over Canterbury". Stuff. 27 October 2018. Retrieved 12 August 2021.
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  32. ^ "Mitre 10 Cup: Salesi Rayasi hat-trick fires Auckland to top spot in Premiership". Stuff. 31 October 2020. Retrieved 12 August 2021.
  33. ^ "Mitre 10 Cup: Otago snap 15-year drought to put Canterbury's season on life-support". Stuff. 30 October 2020. Retrieved 12 August 2021.
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