Steamers to kick off cup against Shield holders

Bay of Plenty will kick off their ITM Cup premiership rugby campaign at home against Ranfurly Shield holders Taranaki on August 25 - although whether Rotorua or Tauranga host the game is a mystery.

New Steamers coach Kevin Schuler's side will play five home games in this season's ITM Cup round-robin, although Bay of Plenty are the only province of 14 still to sort out where their home games will be played.

The ITM Cup is split into two groups of seven, the premiership (first division) and championship (second division), with each team playing each of the sides in their division plus four crossover matches, for a total of 10 matches before the playoffs. All matches carry full competition points.

Mike Rogers, chief executive of the Bay of Plenty Rugby Union, said they had a set criteria which had been used in the past few years to decide which games would be played at Rotorua's International Stadium and which would be in Tauranga.

"Now the draw's confirmed we can allocate games based on the best interests of the union. Right now I couldn't say - historically there's been a 3/2 or 4/1 split, with the majority in Tauranga ... but there's a formula we work through that looks at [financial] return, getting crowds along, venue costs and where we've played opposition teams historically."

They wanted to confirm the split of games as soon as possible to give supporters a chance to plan and rival unions a clear window to book flights and accommodation.

Provincial unions supported the retention of midweek games, with Bay of Plenty also a long-time advocate of scheduling the ITM Cup after club rugby had finished, which would happen this year.

"People and players liked the more condensed competition, with our crowd numbers also strong.

"It will be interesting to see how the competition backs up after the Rugby World Cup and whether demand and interest is still there for the ITM Cup," said Rogers.

Bay of Plenty's ITM Cup schedule:

Saturday, August 25 (2.35pm): v Taranaki (home venue to be confirmed).

Thursday, August 30 (7.35pm): v Otago (home venue to be confirmed).

Friday, September 7 (8.05pm): v Counties Manukau (ECOLight Stadium, Pukekohe)

Tuesday, September 11 (7.35pm): v Waikato (Waikato Stadium)

Friday, September 14 (6:05pm): v Auckland (home venue to be confirmed).

Friday, September 21 (7.35pm): v Hawkes Bay (Mclean Park, Napier).

Tuesday September 25 (7.35pm): v Wellington (home venue to be confirmed).Sunday, September 30 (4.35pm): v Northland (home venue to be confirmed).Thursday, October 4 (7.35pm): v Tasman (Trafalgar Park, Nelson)

Sunday October 14 (4.35pm): v Canterbury (Addington Stadium, Christchurch).

October 19-27: Playoffs.