NPC 2023
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Tight Five: Don't rule out ABs throwing World Cup curveball
OPINION: Elliott Smith analyses the biggest talking points from the world of rugby.
A suggestion...
Rugby’s National Provincial Championship (NPC) - beginning this weekend - needs someone to stand up and reshape it.
The competition’s first division expansion to 14 teams in the 2000s had merit at the time - a different time, when there was some delineation between the Super Rugby, test and provincial seasons, and before the time-poor digital entertainment age that provides a constant distraction in the household.
The top tier is too unwieldy and while the format is less messy than it was, it could use some panelbeating to bring it into 2023. A 10-team first division with two divisions of eight below it feels about right, with promotion and relegation automatic between divisions. You could even institute a playoff between the second-placed team in each division with the second from bottom to add more meaningful games for viewers.
An observation...
A lot of the NPC unions - especially in the top flight - have their heads in the sand about their place in the pecking order in rugby in New Zealand. This isn’t your father or grandfather’s NPC.
It’s a delicate balance given this is the height of the game for many unions. However, the financial losses that some of the provincial unions suffer seem to have no end in sight - and they simply cannot continue to wear these when the books are balanced at the end of the financial year.
It’s pleasing to see some larger unions capitalise on - anecdotally at least - a renaissance in club rugby over the last couple of years, by taking games to smaller venues this season. That may start to lessen the financial load.
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@Bovidae That's a pity. Those media guides were useful and those media releases don't include players that have been added to squads after the initial team namings, but before the season starts. It wouldn't be a problem if each PU had decent player profiles on their websites, but that's not the case.
Several PU's, including my own, still have the 2022 squads on their site.
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North Harbour's website doesn't even have a squad announcement, let alone a profile page.
Auckland still has last year's squad up:
https://www.aucklandrugby.co.nz/our-teams/bunnings-warehouse-npc-team-1
Media guides are still from 2022.
https://www.provincial.rugby/bunnings-npc/media-information/
No coverage at all from the NZ Herald. One article from Stuff.
jeez that is all super amateurish....hell, all this stuff would make a good damning article for some journo...if they cared
happy to say otago seems to have a 2023 squad up, all but a couple with new photos and everything
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@Duluth I still dont know why they bother with the mid-week games, it is a contrived draw as it is, just make it one less game to remove the storm week game, this is a semi pro comp FFS, some of these guys still have jobs, and potentially playing 3 games in 8 days, training and working (or not as would be the case)...
It's a Wednesday night in the winter, and k/o at 1905 FFS...If i want to go, it is better I stay in town than go home and then come back in for the game, not exactly family friendly, you do wonder if some really do want it to fail.
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@Kiwiwomble said in NPC 2023:
The official NPC site doesn't bother with midweek games. Northland v Taranaki is not part of round 1 or round 2 so you won't find the teams listed any where
jesus fucking christ thats lazy, if domestic rugby dies we cant really be surprised
I feel like the blokes who are always putting down the NPC are running it at the moment. It's like they're going out of their way to destroy it.
Just a little bit of effort in marketing and social media would be of benefit.
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@taniwharugby said in NPC 2023:
It's a Wednesday night in the winter, and k/o at 1905
The Hawke's Bay v Waikato mid-week game has been moved to 5.35pm.
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@Nepia I fear it's too late. If done right the club footy passion could translate to NPC. If I wander down to a club game there is often more passion than at a Lions fixture unfortunately.
There's still lots of passion in the provinces. Best we just cut you big city blokes out of it and share your NPC players around to the rest of the squads and we'll leave you to your club rugby.
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The first thing many unions need to look at is the salary cap , it’s fair to say many are flaunting the 1.1m salary cap paying overs for super players which is inflating the spend
Sticking to the cap might see a quality super rugby player stay at a smaller province , I know when Isi Tu’ungafasi made the Crusaders he went back to Northland demanding money that Northland couldn’t come up with ,hence he ended up at Ta$man
I know this really grated with Northland because they had held out an olive branch after he was unwanted by AucklandI know of other unions where a very similar story has happened, I get that it’s an open market , but it doesn’t help when overs are being thrown out there
Some interesting changes coming next year -
@Steven-Harris Haha a bit rich of Isi Tu'ungafasi to do that for such a bog average front rower. Did he not realise that he was only dragged down to Chch in the hope that they could convince Ofa to sign for them lol.
Stuff
