By JULIE ASH
Canterbury, Otago, Southland and Waikato are expected to dominate the national provincial championships which start today with derby games.
The 12 first-grade teams will play three round-robin games before the week-long championships in Palmerston North from September 23 to 28.
The teams have been divided into three pools based on
last year's rankings.
Canterbury, Counties and Manukau, North and Tasman make up pool A, Waikato, Wellington, Bay of Plenty and Eastern are in pool B and Southland, Otago, Western and Auckland make up pool C.
The top two teams in each pool will play off for first to sixth placings. The teams who finish third and fourth in their pools will play off for seventh to 12th.
With Silver Ferns Anna Rowberry, Belinda Colling, Julie Seymour, Anna Veronese and Vilimaina Davu, Canterbury go into the competition as favourites.
Last year's beaten finalists, Waikato, should win pool B over Wellington, and Otago will battle it out with Southland and possibly Auckland for the top two spots in pool C.
