NPC 2025
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A more thorough collaboration between SR teams and their respective provincial unions â in terms of playing identity, selection policy and individual player needs â would, I think, greatly benefit, not just the teams in Super Rugby and the NPC, but all levels of the game in New Zealand. But this requires rugby administrators of genuine vision and ability, making the search for the new NZR CEO all the more urgent and important.
Yep, something I have been banging on about for a while, particularly when for the past 6 or 7 years we have had weaknesses (at 10's controlling a game, kicking) that it seems no one is addressing, the ame issues are present from the top down through NPC and I can only comment on club footy up here, but it is up here too, with the odd exception.
But I do like your thinking in terms of the franchise style of play being different, this will mean our players are exposed to differing styles more often, meaning better adaptibility as they move up the levels.
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Fun Fact: Auckland based teams are 0/9 so far in the NPC
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An article by Paul Cully in the SST, which doesnât appear to be online. It is a summary of which PUs promote or recruit using the percentage of players from within their own secondary school system in their squads. Wellington tops the list. Regarding Northland, it is mentioned that there is a large number of local kids who move to Auckland schools for education/rugby.
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An article by Paul Cully in the SST, which doesnât appear to be online. It is a summary of which PUs promote or recruit using the percentage of players from within their own secondary school system in their squads. Wellington tops the list. Regarding Northland, it is mentioned that there is a large number of local kids who move to Auckland schools for education/rugby.
Not surprised with Southland or Otago, Southland in particular have the smallest population base and only the one school of note, and it is very common for the more talented Eastern Southlanders to complete their schooling in Dunedin or Christchurch at one of the boarding schools there.
With that being said, it's hard to look at Southland and Otago in isolation, it's not uncommon for Otago schooled players to wind up in Southland and vice versa, as the top rugby competition is spread across both provinces.
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An article by Paul Cully in the SST, which doesnât appear to be online. It is a summary of which PUs promote or recruit using the percentage of players from within their own secondary school system in their squads. Wellington tops the list. Regarding Northland, it is mentioned that there is a large number of local kids who move to Auckland schools for education/rugby.
Aside from players moving away for school (which I assume Welly with the St Pats' would accumulate some?), does he cover catchment area players from the Heartland Cup provinces?
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Aside from players moving away for school (which I assume Welly with the St Pats' would accumulate some?), does he cover catchment area players from the Heartland Cup provinces?
He used the official squad lists sent to NZR. As you can see the squad lists differ in size a lot. Ta$man only submitted the minimum of 28 players.
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Aside from players moving away for school (which I assume Welly with the St Pats' would accumulate some?), does he cover catchment area players from the Heartland Cup provinces?
He used the official squad lists sent to NZR. As you can see the squad lists differ in size a lot. Ta$man only submitted the minimum of 28 players.
Yeah, if the Magpies submitted a core 28 I reckon we'd be in the 70s.
But I was meaning guys like, using the Pies as an example, Godfrey and IWL. We seem to pick up Whanganui schooled players from the central north island often and I think we're essentially Poverty Bay and East Coast's home top division team.
And I assume the Poo would be the natural home for Horowhenua schooled players (or Welly too I guess), and Canterbury for the little Canterbury's.
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@Nepia He doesn't go into too much detail, and I don't know how he categorised players who moved on a scholarship to another region (think Lowe and the Sullivan brothers) for the final years of school.
Whanganui players seem to go to either your mob or Taranaki (e.g., Perofeta and now Lennox). I think that most of the major PUs will have picked up players from neighbouring Heartland provinces, often as boarders.
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@Nepia He doesn't go into too much detail, and I don't know how he categorised players who moved on a scholarship to another region (think Lowe and the Sullivan brothers) for the final years of school.
Whanganui players seem to go to either your mob or Taranaki (e.g., Perofeta and now Lennox). I think that most of the major PUs will have picked up players from neighbouring Heartland provinces, often as boarders.
I assume he included them as they started their high schooling in the Bay before moving. I think those three did more than their final years in Auckland.
I do find it weird that Whanganui players don't naturally pick the Poo (although I'm sure some do).
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@gt12 said in Super Rugby 2026:
@Dan54 said in Super Rugby 2026:
@gt12 said in Super Rugby 2026:
@SouthernMann said in Super Rugby 2026:
Article from Irish Paul about how to potentially improve the player distribution for Super.
Peter Keane Chair of the Landers suggesting a protected group and a draft.
At the moment, from my understanding there is a very limited salary cap. While there is also the ability to leverage third-party agreements. Top ups and All Black payments. The salary cap effectively only determines how much NZR puts into Super contracts from a central perspective each year.
From a high performance perspective, you want the best 5 - 7 players in each position starting every week.
I'm against a straight draft. Teams can just top load their squads. Players also have the ability to turn down opportunities. As they should, they should always have the ability to choose.
I'd be a fan of a points system. Each squad could use 250 or 300 points a season. Maximum allocation would be 10 for an All Black and points deducted from there. For example, Beauden Barrett, an out of region player developed elsewhere would be 10 points for the Blues. Same with Ardie Savea at MP. Wallace Sititi, because he made his Super debut for the Chiefs might be eight points. Then just put the considerations in to drop or increase the points given to the players.
There will always be family, locations of choice etc. Plenty of guys choose to take up opportunities where the work is. Same with working professionals in their 20s. You go where you will be noticed.
This isn't just me being a whining Highlanders fan. I'm quite happy with how our squad is starting to look and the future shape of it, especially coming into 27/28.
.What that article really sheets home is that the season is too short, fold super into the NPC (one competition) so that we can have a core set of professional teams that are playing over the season. Want to fix engagement? Make sure that the there is content over the year. Start a bit later then have an international break, another round of Super, some more internationals, then it's summer off. This shouldn't be that hard.
Good idea mate, but NPC and Super are obviously such different comps it like saying fold super into Tests. Neither comps go along with other.
That sounds like someone who doesnât want to lose Super players from their NPC team.
We can still have a provincial championship but we need one professional comp and one amateur.
The Club > provincial championship for the amateurs and those trying to break into pro rugby, then Super development and Super rugby for the pros.
Actually have to disagree, as we will just lose more players to a lot of players if NPC was straight out amateur, well I think. We at moment have a pro, semi pro and amateur, and like it or not there is quite a bit of semi pro rugby around world that will attract players. Also it not about losing players from Naki etc, but I honestly think Super is well and truly long enough, and think you will find many many think similar.9Including a lot in (Aus) Just leave the NPC alone, it is probably best comp, and why stuff it up for super.
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I'm an old guy (FFS that sounds weird I still think I'm a young fulla) who loves the NPC.
If the NPC goes for a long Super comp then I'm done with pay TV for the majority of the year. I'd probably only get it for the AB tests and that would be it. The amount of rugby I watch has decreased as I get older as I have more on these days, but I'm still paying my $$ each month to the broadcaster.
Watching a Magpies team of long term club players, young up and comers, and the odd import is great, a new amateur comp of those left behind is not going to be great. Also, who is going to broadcast a comp shorn of all the good players? One of the benefits of the NPC currently is that there is a mix of players, there's lots of super players, lots of long term provincial players, lots of up and comers, and then there's the odd current ABs that get a run. The new comp will be the leftovers of the leftovers. AS @Dan54 notes the best of the "amateurs" will just go overseas, and there goes our depth.
I don't think long comps are better just because the NH and NRL have them. In most years I get bored with the NRL around July, granted this might be because the Warriors are usually done by then, and I've always liked the the three tier structure in NZ pro rugby - watch Super to a conclusion, then the tests, then NPC, then the EOYT for icing on the cake.
Half of the problem can be fixed by having a non idiot create the schedule. Why was there such a stupidly long gap between the tour tests and the RC? The RC could be finishing up soon, putting way more viewer emphasis on the NPC, instead we had almost a month of nothing and then the RC and NPC running concurrently.
If rugby is in such a perilous position as the media keeps telling us, I don't think it can afford to lose the old fans like me in favour of the tik tok brigade. I'm the guy who pays the broadcasters and can more regularly afford tickets to matches.
Of course, if the Magpies become their own franchise in the new system then I'm 100% on board.
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@Nepia yep mate, and I think it would also take away NPCs usefulness of having young fellas coming through and playing a higher standard with and against good players. Also I think we would find even if Super went staright through, MP and Drua would lose to many players to test team to be involved. Also not sure that Aussies want more super.
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Perhaps I'm biased anyway because I like NPC so much, just talking to Mrs last nigh , and was throwing around about how some places different comps are on different streaming etc. I said if it came down to having access to one comp I would take NPC over Super .
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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 it doesn't matter because the audience is essentially zero. ABs, massive gap, SR, then another massive gap, NPC according to him
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@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.
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If Super Rugby were to a full year round competition, then I think there would be merit in adding another NZ team and another Australian side - dillute the quality of both so it remains even. Concern I think would be whether adding a central NI team may just end up killing the Highlanders and Moana.
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@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
Part of that is on them and NZR. In 2018 the NPC drew more viewers than the NRL (In 13 weeks v 26 weeks) yet NZR especially and Sky let the competition wilt on the vine.
Also, on the thread count, the Super matches posters are divided between 5 teams, the NPC between 14. I'd expect the Chiefs threads to have far more posters than Waikato or BoP. Not having a go at you, but stats aren't always apples and oranges.
Auckland Rugby
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