The worst ITM Cup season ever?

Northland's Dan Pryor shows his frustration after another loss. Photo / Getty

History is being made in the ITM Cup.

New Zealand's premier provincial rugby competition is flying under the radar due to the Rugby World Cup taking centre stage, but there is big potential for an all-time record to be set.

There's only one catch - it's a record that no team would ever want to be approaching.

Northland are in danger of being the worst ITM Cup side of all time, with just two games left in their season to avoid an unwanted mark.

With a 0-8 record, Northland currently have zero points on the season, failing to even notch a solitary bonus point in their contests thus far. The last team to go through a first division season without earning a point was King Country in 1996, while the last side to fail to snare a win was Counties Manukau in 2007.

More notable however, is how outclassed Northland have been. They have scored just 95 points - an average of 11.8 points per game which is woeful in a high-octane offensive climate where the average team scores 27.5 points per game, and the second worst side averages 19.5 points per contest. Northland average a whopping 30 missed tackles per game, and rank last in metres gained, a double-whammy which will always cause problems.

Their point differential is an astonishing -29.4 per game - a mark that was the catalyst for the following research question:

Is the 2015 Northland side on track to be the worst NPC side of all time?

I looked at the contenders for the undesirable tag, starting with the sides which were bad, but not at an all-time level.

1995 Southland - 0 wins, 8 losses. 6 points. Point Differential: - 10.75 per game
1994 Taranaki - 0 wins, 8 losses. 4 points. Point Differential: -13.5 per game
1993 Hawke's Bay - 0 wins, 8 losses. 3 points. Point Differential: -10.6 per game

These three teams were bad enough to go winless, but competitive enough to pick up several bonus points throughout the season. The following two sides weren't defeated in every game, but lost on average by 20 points per game.

2001 Counties Manukau - 1 win, 1 draw, 8 losses. 7 points. Point Differential: -22.0 per game

1999 Southland - 0 wins, 1 draw, 8 losses. 4 points. Point Differential: -20.2 per game

Remaining are what I have deemed to be the ten worst NPC sides of all time, using a mixture of statistics and historical context:

Resume: 0 wins, 9 losses. 5 points. Point Differential: -20.2 per game

It may have been a winless season with a hefty average loss of 20 points per game, but the 1998 Northland side managed to pick up five bonus points throughout the season to slightly elevate their status above some other cellar dwellars.

Resume: 0 wins, 8 losses. 0 points. Point Differential: -18.7 per game

How come a team who failed to get a single point isn't cracking the top three of this list, you ask? Well, King Country weren't completely abysmal - having multiple losses from between 7-10 points. A few missed kicks here and there and they could have picked up a few more points, and were far more competitive than some of the sides still to come in this top 10 list.

Resume: 0 wins, 1 draw, 9 losses. 2 points. Point Differential: -21.8 per game

Before they became an exhilarating attacking side under Tana Umaga, Counties Manukau took their lumps. Their 2007 side had three interesting names - Siale Piutau, young Sekope Kepu and the always-entertaining Lelia Masaga, and although they snuck a draw against North Harbour, they failed to pick up a bonus point throughout the season. Losses like a 47-10 thrashing by Southland and a 52-13 defeat to Canterbury were the season lowlights.

Resume: 0 wins, 9 losses. 4 points. Point Differential: -23.1 per game

Northland conceded 42.6 points per game this season, and their winless 2003 season was the start of an all-time record losing streak. More on this later, but to put it in perspective - this 2003 winless season was a better season than the two years to follow.

Resume: 0 wins, 10 losses. 0 points. Point Differential: -18 per game

Yes, Marlborough were a top-tier team back in the day, and have the dubious honour of being one of just three teams to ever go through a full season without earning a point. Their average loss of 18 points per game is not as bad as others, but 1977 was a less prolific era for scoring, with only one team (Counties) scoring more than 19 points per game. Canterbury went a perfect 10-0, putting themselves on the shortlist for whenever I get round to writing the "Best ITM Cup team ever" article.

Resume: 1 win, 9 losses. 5 points. Point Differential: -25.3 per game

I see what you are saying already. This Manawatu team managed to win a game! How can they possibly make the top five worst teams of all time? Well, it's unfortunately simple. Not only was their points differential historically bad at -25.3 points per game, they scored 84 points in 10 games. 8.4 points per game!!! The worst offence in NPC history deserves a top five spot.

Resume: 0 wins, 9 losses. 1 point. Point Differential: -25.4 per game

If the 1988 Manawatu squad were the worst NPC offence of all time, then 2004 Northland have a strong claim to being the worst defence. The Taniwha conceded 436 points in nine games - an average of 48.4 points per game. They conceded at least 29 points in every game - here's the ugly game log of points conceded per game: 53, 40, 37, 54, 62, 41, 40, 29, 65, 68.

Resume: 0 wins, 9 losses, 1 point. Point Differential: -27 per game

A year removed from having the worst defence ever, Northland decided to switch things up and struggle with offence. They scored just 97 points in nine games (10.8 points per game), their top try scorer was a hooker (the admittedly legendary Tim Dow), and they continued the historical losing streak I mentioned earlier.

Northland went from October 13, 2002 to August 20, 2006 without winning a single NPC game. That's 1,407 days without winning an NPC game. They lost 30 games on the trot in the first division, and yet still stayed in the top flight by continually winning the promotion/relegation games against sides like Hawke's Bay and Nelson Bays.

It's hard to imagine the record held by the mid-2000's Northland sides will be broken any time soon.

Resume: 0 wins, 8 losses. 0 points. Point Differential: -29.4 per game

This current Northland iteration have gone 369 days without a win, and have two games to avoid being one of the all-time losing sides in NPC history. They have only lost by less than 25 on one occasion, with their losses by round reading as follows: 29, 9, 29, 43, 25, 25, 32, 43.

However, they still have a good chance to avoid being the worst side in NPC history.

That title is currently held by....

Resume: 0 wins, 10 losses. 0 points. Point Differential: -30.5 points per game.

It is really hard to top the 1990 Southland team for ineptitude. Promoted from the second division in 1989, they simply weren't up to the first division level.

Southland scored just 8.9 points per game, and conceded 39.4 points per game on their way to the zero point season. They suffered some truly hefty losses, going down 57-13 to North Harbour before Waikato thrashed them 75-12 two weeks later - with forward Rob Gordon scoring five tries - the most by any forward in an NPC Division One game.

It didn't get better for them, with a 64-16 loss to Otago setting an Otago record for points against Southland, before the worst was saved until last, losing 78-7 to Auckland.

Northland may have suffered some consistently bad losses this year, but they haven't had multiple 70 point outings stacked up against them like Southland in 1990.

Northland have two games left this season - playing Otago tomorrow night before taking on North Harbour on Sunday. It's unlikely that they will get thrashed and topple Southland for the number one spot, but unless they can snare a win, they will go down as one of the worst teams in NPC history.