NPC 2025
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Truthfully one of the reasons why I love NZ rugby is the shortened compacted windows of competition - a few months of super, a few months of the All Blacks, a few months of NPC.
You never get bored of any aspect of NZ rugby cos it's not over saturated.
In contrast despite coming from the NH I have no interest in watching the marathon that is nh club rugby. 9 months of the same comp? Thanks but no thanks.
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@Duluth said in Super Rugby 2026:
It’s half time in HB v Northland and no one has commented on the game since it started. Interest is low even in this self selected community
Seriously, most of the contributors to the Magpies threads were chased away from contributing to these threads a couple of years back. Go back a few years and the Magpies threads would be quite vibrant in comparison.
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@African-Monkey said in Super Rugby 2026:
@Duluth said in Super Rugby 2026:
On the NPC & SR discussion I thought I'd check how active TSF threads are
TSF skews older and we have a few people who keep talking about how much they prefer the NPC. The subset here would be more positive to the NPC than the overall population
The majority of NPC threads last year generally got 20-100 posts. Somewhere just below 50 seems about the average. The final got 258 posts
Compare that to a the Highlanders. They had between 119-427 posts and they didn't have the boost of the playoff comments.
Just skimming through the numbers I would say regular season average posting would be at least 5x higher on a SR rugby match
(note I didn't look at any numbers after the url screw up, the NPC number are from last year)
That 5x difference is huge given this community will be way more positive to the NPC than the general public. We have a lot of people over 45
I was speaking to a rugby producer at Sky last week and I asked a few questions about he NPC coverage have games at the same time etc. He said doesn't matter because the audience is essentially zero. ABs, massive gap, SR, then another massive gap, NPC according to him
Same on social media, with people going on and on about how NPC is the superior product.
It really isn't, they're a minority, but a very noisy minority who need to be ignored.
It's performative
Judge people by what they actually do not by what they say. Posts across the whole NPC are tiny compared to SR in this self selected, high interest in rugby, community
Every year the media covers the NPC less.
Every year the interest in these forums goes down in NPC (despite total traffic going up and posts in SR and ABs increasing)
There's always an excuse
But the reality is a mixture of these:
- People are watching NPC less
- The games aren't interesting enough to comment on
- The people watching don't care enough
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IMHO NPC has been super interesting this season
Theres been Sopoaga at Waikato - last minute wins against Auckland and Taranaki, been great to see Leicester return at Ta$man, that epic Southland comeback.... Even the teams that are getting beaten every week like counties are serving up some pretty good rugby imo.
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That's great. I'm watching most games too. However each of us is one data point. I'm not pretending there's lots of people with my rugby watching habits. The interest in the competition goes down each year and that's been happening for decades as the standard has declined
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It would be interesting to see how many on here actually go to games. Sky probably only care about subscribers irrespective of the crowd numbers. I acknowledge that thousands of empty seats is not a good look, whatever the game.
My friends and I are seriously thinking about not renewing our Chiefs season memberships. It has nothing to do with the product on the field but the BS around the whole "game experience". We've had the same seats for over 20 years. We will continue to support Waikato though.
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@Duluth said in Super Rugby 2026:
That's great. I'm watching most games too. However each of us is one data point. I'm not pretending there's lots of people with my rugby watching habits. The interest in the competition goes down each year and that's been happening for decades as the standard has declined
Fair enough.
Aside from the rugby I just love the vibe/aesthetic of the NPC - it has a real community/grassroots feel to it..... Even when they cut to people in the crowd it's workaday families having a day/evening out at the game who are relatable people.
So much of modern sport is watching millionaire divas and all the bs that comes with it. The NPC feels like a real.antidote to that and a throwback.
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@Bovidae said in Super Rugby 2026:
It would be interesting to see how many on here actually go to games
Since I came back to NZ in 2013 until I had a kid in 2022 I attended almost every game at Eden Park - NPC, SR & ABs
@Bovidae said in Super Rugby 2026:
Sky probably only care about subscribers irrespective of the crowd numbers.
I asked the producer about that and he thought that Sky management sees the NPC as a burden and they want the games over as fast as possible. Interest is so low. I presume they are delighted about the new deal
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Oh, one thing I also like about NPC is how you see Super rugby teammates going against each other - Christian Lio Willie v Havili & Blackadder now for instance.
Its just a nice little wrinkle that for some reason I find cool.
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@African-Monkey said in Super Rugby 2026:
@Duluth said in Super Rugby 2026:
On the NPC & SR discussion I thought I'd check how active TSF threads are
TSF skews older and we have a few people who keep talking about how much they prefer the NPC. The subset here would be more positive to the NPC than the overall population
The majority of NPC threads last year generally got 20-100 posts. Somewhere just below 50 seems about the average. The final got 258 posts
Compare that to a the Highlanders. They had between 119-427 posts and they didn't have the boost of the playoff comments.
Just skimming through the numbers I would say regular season average posting would be at least 5x higher on a SR rugby match
(note I didn't look at any numbers after the url screw up, the NPC number are from last year)
That 5x difference is huge given this community will be way more positive to the NPC than the general public. We have a lot of people over 45
I was speaking to a rugby producer at Sky last week and I asked a few questions about he NPC coverage have games at the same time etc. He said doesn't matter because the audience is essentially zero. ABs, massive gap, SR, then another massive gap, NPC according to him
Same on social media, with people going on and on about how NPC is the superior product.
It really isn't, they're a minority, but a very noisy minority who need to be ignored.
It's performative
Judge people by what they actually do not by what they say. Posts across the whole NPC are tiny compared to SR in this self selected, high interest in rugby, community
Every year the media covers the NPC less.
Every year the interest in these forums goes down in NPC (despite total traffic going up and posts in SR and ABs increasing)
There's always an excuse
But the reality is a mixture of these:
- People are watching NPC less
- The games aren't interesting enough to comment on
- The people watching don't care enough
I'm not gonna lie, the last time I genuinely followed the comp was 2022 with Auckland. I didn't follow it in 2021 as we got booted out of it. I think when we lost the final in 2020 to Ta$man was when I really stopped caring as I just shrugged my shoulders and moved on. I used to be filthy if Auckland lost a game before then (I still get annoyed when the Blues drop a game). Now I just see it as a chance to throw up some kids and hope we find some good ones for the Blues, and now being based in Perth, the time difference makes it even tougher.
Pre covid, I used to watch most NPC.
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It’s half time in HB v Northland and no one has commented on the game since it started. Interest is low even in this self selected community
Well I never comment on tests during halftime, or super, guess that means I not interested in any rugby. Funny enough, I can enjoy game without telling everyone online what I think while it on.
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That's great. I'm watching most games too. However each of us is one data point. I'm not pretending there's lots of people with my rugby watching habits. The interest in the competition goes down each year and that's been happening for decades as the standard has declined
I would suggest that the viewing etc has declined as people have got access to more sports to watch. And many now just watch highlight packages as concentration level not great for a couple of hours. I am quite confident it is same in almost every sport, ie; who even watches cricket these days, used to be real popular. Sport in general is taking less time in our lives.
I will add I know people ( a few at gold club etc) who don't watch test rugby on tv anymore as they don't keep Pay tv just to watch it.
I would bet there very few sports that get more viewing than they did 10-20 years ago -
Bottom line is there is a few who want to see NPC disappear and for some reason are death riding it. Then in a few years they will want super to go and just have tests on tv. It's a fact when NPC etc was obviously at most popular, there was no super above it, and ABs played about 4-6 tests max a year! Geez I still enjoy watching college rugby on tv. Moan about corwds etc , but as Nepia rightfully pointed out instead of 5 NZ teams there are 14 to spread support amongst. Crowds will probably go down a bit next year as it goes on FTA and accessable to everyone with a tv.
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I was speaking to a rugby producer at Sky last week and I asked a few questions about he NPC coverage have games at the same time etc. He said it doesn't matter because the audience is essentially zero. ABs, massive gap, SR, then another massive gap, NPC according to him
The production budget for NPC is also a fraction of that of ABs/SR, so that's why there's no pre/post-match shows/analysis.
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How good is afternoon rugby though, have to think players enjoy it more too.
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SR is the NPC of the modern professional era. This isn't the Ranfurly Shield we're talking about, the NPC has a generation or two of support and with the advent of SR at least another generation is otherwise engaged, as I suspect are the average viewers as that's where the talent lies.
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I personally still love the NPC and following the Taniwha plus a couple other teams that I have ties to.
Its still the best comp in terms of seeing what new talent is coming through
Nobody turns up to first class cricket but it’s still the main pathway in terms of identifying new talent
I know after Northlands back to back wins the social engagement on the Taniwha FB site has been massive.
Fair to say we have been starved of success hence people have come out of the woodwork over last couple of weeks
My interest in Super Rugby is a 6/10 but I’m more likely to follow the teams that have Taniwha players running around in their squads.
I do have a massive soft spot for Moana Pacifika and I will say the game against the Blues this year at North Harbour stadium was the best live super rugby game experience I have had in a very long time
One thing I will say I have never abandoned the Taniwha through the bad (and it’s fair to say there’s been some very bad over the years ) because every now again they surprise me . -
Well I never comment on tests during halftime, or super, guess that means I not interested in any rugby. Funny enough, I can enjoy game without telling everyone online what I think while it on.
I’m talking about populations and you keep responding with single data points
I’ll repeat with more detail something I said earlier
Every year for the last decade TSF traffic has increased (probably not this year after the url issue)
Average posts on AB threads have followed that pattern. There is an extra boost in RWC years.
Average posts in SR games involving at least one NZ side has also increased in a similar pattern. (there is a weird extra boost during covid for SR)
Like for like all those things are going up
NPC is going in the opposite direction. Declining chat despite traffic to the site being up. I’m not talking in anecdotes, I’m talking about what is happening across this communities population. This subset is more likely to watch NPC than the general population.
To put it bluntly people who prefer the NPC skew much older. As they move on they are not replaced.
Recognising a problem is not death riding something. I actually think the people who are over the top positive about the competition are a net negative. Pretending the competition isn’t in a steep decline doesn’t help fix anything.
