Rugby: Three-tier structure for domestic competitions

The NPC will be reduced to 10 teams next year. Photo / Northern Advocate

A new domestic rugby competition structure featuring a 10-team premier division, a six-team division one and a 10-team Heartland competition will be launched next year.

New Zealand Rugby Union chief executive Steve Tew said yesterday that the new structure included automatic promotion-relegation between the premier division and division one.

There would be fixed time frames for each level of competition, starting with the club season, and a single national finals day across all three competitions.

Further consideration would also be given to promotion-relegation between the new division one and Heartland competitions.

NZRU chairman Jock Hobbs said the changes were important to resolving the sustainability issues and uncertainty that had hampered the success of the provincial competition.

"We had a very clear message from our provincial unions earlier this year that change was necessary and that we needed to act quickly and decisively.

"With the support and involvement of our provincial unions, we have done that, and believe this structure is one which meets the competition principles which New Zealand's rugby collective decided were important."

A "solvency test and assessable criteria", as agreed to by participating Air NZ Cup provincial unions, will be used to determine the 10 unions who will participate in the inaugural premier division with the remaining four unions playing in division one.

The assessment will take place after this year's competition on November 20, with criteria including on- and off-field results.

The criteria involve population (10 per cent), community rugby (25 per cent), playing history (20 per cent), player development (15 per cent) and financial position and performance (30 per cent).

All of the criteria will be averaged over four years, between 2006 and 2009.

"There is a real incentive for provincial unions to perform both on and off the field in 2009 as these results will be part of the assessment criteria," Tew said. "Similarly, for those provinces that do play in division one in 2010, there is a pathway back via promotion-relegation."

The issue of promotion and relegation between the Heartland and division one competitions would remain unclear for a period.

"It may be necessary to seal the bottom end of division one for a while to let the two teams who come up [from the Heartland championship] to consolidate and sometimes it takes a bit of time," Tew said.

The new competitions were adopted by the NZRU board at a special meeting on Saturday and follow a series of workshops involving New Zealand's 26 provincial unions, Super 14 franchises and the New Zealand Rugby Players' Association.

The NZRU recognised that the announcement of the new competitions had the potential to generate some anxiety for provincial unions and their supporters, Tew said.

"The clear message from provincial unions was that we needed to act sooner rather than later on implementing changes and creating certainty in terms of our domestic competitions."

Tew said that once the assessments were completed in November, the NZRU would work closely with affected unions, including those seeking inclusion from the Heartland championship, on establishing themselves in the new division one competition.

At least four Heartland unions had indicated interest in being one of the two teams to start division one next year.

"There is still work to be carried out on a number of the details...but we can now do that with certainty about the new competition structure and with a definite timeline to work towards 2010."

Canterbury Rugby Football Union chief executive Hamish Riach said the changes were welcome.

"The NZRU have made sensible and logical decisions. We always felt that to have 14 teams in the Air New Zealand Cup competition was unsustainable.

"There was a lot of consultation - the NZRU sought the views of a wide range of people in the rugby community - and we at Canterbury are looking forward to playing in the new competition."

* Three-tier structure

PREMIER DIVISION

10 teams and include Super rugby players.

Round robin with semifinals and final.

Each team to have four to five home matches.

Competition length 11 weeks.

Promotion and relegation automatic between the 10th place team and the division one champion.

DIVISION ONE

Six teams.

Home and away with top two meeting in final.

Each team to host five home matches.

11-week competition.

Promotion and relegation automatic between the winner of division one and the 10th team in the premier division.

HEARTLAND COMPETITION

10 teams.

Round robin format with semifinals and finals.

Each team to host four or five home matches.

11-week competition.

Promotion and relegation with division one to be considered further.

All three competitions next year will begin on August 14 and end on October 23.

- NZPA