Highlanders have periodically been brought up as the NZ team to drop if a team needs to be cut, they tend to rely very heavily on imported players and tapped into the uni imports strongly. Yes they have the odd outlier year and even managed to jag a title but are generally the NZ team that struggles.Crusaders have built a strong rugby club based on chch and then the highlanders in Otago / Dunedin
So ignoring Wellington it’s an area that supports two super rugby sides
They got a team based on the Historical 5 main centres(Dunedin has since been overtaken and left behind) and an even spread of teams, in the Women’s super rugby they don’t have a team for example It’s a single South Island franchise