Air NZ Cup

Fair enough, Tasman should be cut.
But Northland? A storied province that has achieved much more than such provinces as Taranaki, Bay of Plenty, and North Harbour. Home of the Goings, and many more great players.

Id be sad to see Northland go, Ive always had a soft spot for them... but the game cant stay stuck in the past vadz, dynasties crumble over the ages and all that....if they cant foot it NOW then they are out, welcome to professional sport

I would have thought Manawatu would be a more likely candidate. They have a relatively small provincial area, and Palmerston North has excellent communication links so the locals don't have to travel very far or long to see top flight football. Manawatu did not do that well last season and the Canterbury result notwithstanding, they didn't look good against Southland.

I suppose the NZRU wouldn't like having their rugby museum, rugby academy and a university in a non-first division province though.

Sad about Northland going too. It would off been a cool province to play for. Couple mates did it and enjoyed every minute of it.

heh once again canterbury gets just one NPC team to pick from, they need to scrap the NPC salary cap or give canterbury another union to pick from...

I was actually more surprised about Tasman, given that they are part of the Crusaders... I would have thought there would havebeen more Cantab pressure to keep them in the competition and provide the Crusaders with a second provincial side. Not saying they deserved to stay I just didn't think they would be cut to ensure every franchise had at least two provinces.

Sucks for the SI, means we only have 3 teams in the Top Grade, not going to help in regards to competitive Super 14 teams, how many top grade sides do the hurricanes have? 4 or something

Thought Rugby was a NZ sport, not a NI sport

I'll tell you which teams should be cut from the NPC


......






Auckland
Canterbury
Waikato
Otago
and Wellington


Let them ^^ play the extended Super-whatever. Super-?will soon be apeing the Henienken Cup, which will mean a longer season for the top tier of players plus internationals. Our AB's will soon play literally NO club or provincial rugby....in fact, provincial rugby IS the new club rugby

Super franchises simply pick the best out of the provinces around them

Masty, if you hadn't heard, Super rugby will be based on top performing PROVINCES, not artificial franchises

I hadnt heard that you are right......well after reading the 947th article in which Tew espouses his new vision for the Super comp involving PI/Argentinian/American teams etc I stop reading those sort of reports. Its boring

doesnt change my view that eventually it will go Henieken Cup style with so many rounds and travel that participating unions will no longer have the time or resources to compete in the NPC.

And the notion that provinces will qualify from the comp is a ridiculous one, it needs to be the major centres or the money wont be there and thats what its all about now

i hate steve tew.

Totally. Hes the epitomy of that ex jock arrogant aloofness found in senior rugby management. And the breweries for that matter


Also reminds me of the attitide I encountered at college from PE Teachers and Principals who told me that "I wasnt allowed to play league" and when I did eventually play Sat club league for Northcote .....I was treated like some sort of leper

Glenfield College. 1200 (?) odd pupils. 20 (?) rugby teams......... NO league teams.

All attempts to start one blocked by fuckwit rugger boneheads, Ive actually never forgiven "rugby" for that

What they (Tew and NZRU) did to Nelson Bays/Marlborough...there are no words for that shit. Talk about ripping the heart out of heartland rugby.

And the league in schools ting...when I was in Form 1 our school's 1st XV consisted of league players (future AK players like Francis Leota, Fred Muller, Frank Tenatelia?) who had to play twice in one day, in the morning for their league club, and afternoon for 1st XV. And the halfback was a guy named John Kirwan.

Go the G'Hood... but with old man Gear in charge anything that wasn't rugby or diving would never see the light of day.

Fuck.. I had a message..(no really I did)...
Go the G'Hood... old man Gear made sure that Rugby was #1..

heh it was Gear and Lowe in my day...they were as bad as each other

The league thing came later, I can vividly recall my 1st ever PE class as a pretty apprehensive weedy turd former, 1st thing Gear does to us all is ask "Any soccer players here?"

Some bastard uttered my name and that was it for me, a full term or so of constant badgering and random punishment from the squat little prick. Pretty f*cked up when I think about it

Id say he would have gotten his beans on the outside from some ex- pupil by now though

Auckland 13th

How many titles vads???

The glorious North Harbour Union were f*cking robbed again, Zar's knock on was abysmal!

16, which means the closest team only has to win every year for 11 year to equal us

If a team is leading 48-15 in the 76th minute and the other team launches an attack and scores a penalty making it 48-18, do you say the losing team is better?

I live in the now, and Canterbury thumped Auckland

So living in the "now", the team that scores last is the best team?