NZ competitions review

[southern warrior]

New NPC: Two Divisions And No ABs
26/11/2003 03:46 PM
Duncan Johnstone

The All Blacks will no longer play in the Air New Zealand NPC and the competition has been restructured into two divisions. These were the key points to come out of the New Zealand Rugby Union's Competitions Review document which was released on Wednesday.

New Zealand is seeking more test for the All Blacks, believing that is the best way to develop the team.

The new NPC will have a premier grade run on a professional and semi-professional basis. It will have 12 teams and be run with a salary cap and will have elegibility criteria in place for competing teams.

The "domestic' grade, or second tier competiiton, will have up to 15 teams involved.

New Zealand Rugby Union chairman Jock Hobbs said the key changes had been agreed to by the board after consideirng the review document which took nine months of work, involving discussions at all levels of the game.

The key points are:

All Blacks

Two principal changes will be made to the All Blacks playing schedule:

* The All Blacks will seek to play more test matches mainly but not only against tier one nations, provided appropriate commercial arrangements can be entered into.

* The All Blacks will not play in the Air New Zealand NPC.

The review found that more high-quality games would be beneficial for the development of All Blacks rugby. As well, additional matches will generate more revenue for New Zealand rugby.

The NZRU will be discussing the bid to increase the number of All Black matches with the IRB and other countries.

Air New Zealand NPC

The Air New Zealand NPC will be structured as follows:

1. The current NPC will be split into two competitions.

2. The first competition (Premier competition) will be a professional/semi professional competition. This will be "managed" to promote even contests:

* It will comprise 12 teams, playing in a single round robin

* Players playing in this competition will be paid to play.

* Teams wishing to participate in this competition will have to meet eligibility criteria.

* There will be a hard cap on player costs, including bonuses.

3. The second competition (Domestic competition) will be an amateur competition. There are options for structuring this competition:

* It will be comprised of up to 15 teams with all teams playing a minimum of eight games.

* Teams wishing to participate in this competition will also have to meet eligibility criteria.

Mr Hobbs said the review found that while the Air New Zealand NPC was a successful competition, the First Division produced too many uneven contests. One of the key factors contributing to the lack of competitive balance was a very uneven distribution of financial resources among Provincial Unions. The change in the competition structure aimed to address that imbalance. A review of the NZRU's funding of Provincial Unions will be conducted in 2004 to further address this issue.

3. Super 12

* The Super 12 franchise boards will have five directors - two independents, two from non-host Provincial Unions and one from the host Provincial Union.

* The Chairman will be appointed by the franchise board and will be one of the two independent directors.

The NZRU is committed to the Super 12. It is a successful competition, has strong fan support, players like it and it generates significant revenue.

The NZRU will support an expansion of Super 12, subject to a number of conditions. Two of the most important of these are that any expansion must not make the professional players unavailable for our domestic competitions and it must provide New Zealand with a commercial benefit.[/b]

 

[ozbash]

not very good imho.

it does nothing for grassroots rugby and we will see teams like east coast and west coast (si) swallowed up and gone forever.

how do they define an all black ?
would merts still qualify ? he played npc this last season and just missed out going to oz for the cup.


they are talking about a pacific islands s12 team,,, how will that effect a samoan players availability for national honours should he be selected ? after all, he will be a professional...

 

[ozbash]

Manu Samoa coach John Boe has welcomed an opening for Pacific Island rugby into the Super 12, but also wants to join a proposed nine-team international competition.


The proposed new competition in 2006 was announced by Australian Rugby Union chief executive John O'Neill in Sydney yesterday. It would involve the tri-nations and Six Nations sides and be staged every second November in the northern hemisphere. It would be played in three pools of three teams each.

O'Neill also told the final World Cup news conference that a combined Pacific Island team could enter the Super 12 competition in 2006.

It was all music to Boe's ears, though he doubted the practicality of a combined Island team.

"It is great news, a step in the right direction," he said.

"I'm not so keen on a combined team, perhaps we could have our own tri-nations with Fiji and Tonga with the top team going into the Super 12.

"We'd like to be part of the Six Nations-tri-nation competition as well. We are as good as Wales and Scotland and we've beaten Italy the only two times we've played them.

"We would add a lot to that competition because we play a different style and with different faces."

O'Neill's announcement was not expected by the New Zealand Rugby Union and may have stolen some of the thunder from tomorrow's release of their competitions review.

NZRU chief executive Chris Moller said he was comfortable with it reaching the public arena and he confirmed that a proposal from Australia, New Zealand and South Africa had been circulated to International Rugby Board members last week.

Dubbed the "Nine Nations Cup" it is viewed as a potential replacement for meaningless tours by Sanzar teams to the northern hemisphere.

"It is only a concept and has not been approved by the Sanzar board nor the Australia, New Zealand and South African boards," Moller said

"I think it has a lot of attributes to it, but we need to go through the process. I think the concept has merit . . . will it get off the ground, it is too hard to tell."

Moller would not comment on how the Nine Nations Cup would affect the Bledisloe Cup or the All Blacks traditional home international window in June.

He said those issues would be addressed at tomorrow's competitions review.

Meanwhile, IRB chairman Syd Millar said the 2003 World Cup, won by England on Saturday, had been the best so far.

He said the profit was expected to be about E50 million (NZ$134.55 million).

Millar also said Japan, who co-hosted the 2002 soccer World Cup with South Korea, had expressed an interest in hosting the 2011 rugby World Cup.

The 2007 competition will be staged mainly in France with games in Wales, Ireland and Scotland.

 

[SpaceMonkey]

I do think the changes to the top levvel of the NPC are a step in the right direction, the structure looks more aking to the NRL/S12 which will be good for the mid-sized unions such as the BOP and Taranaki who struggle to compete with the big unions. However I share Ozbash's concern about the fate of the small unions who will either be swallowed up by mergers or laguish at the tail of the amatuer comp. And I don't get the thing about All Blacks not playing in the NPC either. Why is it necessary to make this rule? All Black Rugby always takes precedence anyway, even now it is rare for top level AB's to play much if any NPC rugby. However saying All Blacks cannot play in the NPC at all makes it harder for players returning from injury, and what happens when a player is promoted mid-season, or is dumped from the ABs? The Unions should at least have the option of signing All Blacks at the start of the season, although the salary cap will probably ensure thay they won't.

 

[AuckMel]

A salary cap could spell big trouble for teams like, Auckland, Canterbury, Otago, Wellington and Waikato.

It's an odd decision. It's like they are trying to de-power the bigger unions, which is probably good news for the smaller ones, if they can afford it of course.

 

[southern warrior]

A salary cap could spell big trouble for teams like, Auckland, Canterbury, Otago, Wellington and Waikato.

It's an odd decision. It's like they are trying to de-power the bigger unions, which is probably good news for the smaller ones, if they can afford it of course.

I don't think the salary cap will be to bad we can just ship the fringe players to Southland

 

[bayrep]

At this stage the unions around the country have to approve the changes dont they ?

I agree with the salary cap, this should see the top teams stop poaching the better players from the smaller unions.

I dont agree with the ALL Blacks playing more tests as they just want to tie us in to deals that will mean we play the other top tier teams more often, I am getting tired of the tri nations already I would rather see tours coming back in where you have a 9 week schedule that sees the All Blacks playing mid week provincial teams again. It does nothing for the pacific island teams or other minow countries trying to improve. Not that it should be up to NZ to solve all international problems of course.

I can understand the NZRU trying to boast the finacial out look for NZ but at what cost the the international scene were we are only playing the top nations and to the grass roots were you will see the demise of the swamp foxs who struggle now.

Also if you look at it they have just added another level of rugby to the structure of NZ rugby.

They used to get great crowds to club games, then NPC was created which meant that the top players played less for their clubs so the crowds dropped. Then we had the S12, so club rugby struggles like buggery and NPC games struggle to pull in big crowds. Now our All Blacks are full time so this must devalue the S12 ?

 

[ozbash]

""They used to get great crowds to club games, then NPC was created which meant that the top players played less for their clubs so the crowds dropped. Then we had the S12, so club rugby struggles like buggery and NPC games struggle to pull in big crowds. Now our All Blacks are full time so this must devalue the S12 ?""

that just about sums it up.
pro rugby isnt a sport anymore , its a bussiness..