New cup honours six Chiefs rugby centurions

The Chiefs this week announced the launch of the Chiefs Country Centurion Cup. Photo / Chiefs Rugby

The Chiefs Rugby Club this week announced the launch of the 2020 Chiefs Country Centurion Cup.

The Centurion Cup has Chiefs Country Provincial Unions Bay of Plenty, Counties Manukau, Taranaki and Waikato play a quadrangular competition in Hamilton, as curtain raisers to the Gallagher Chiefs home matches at FMG Stadium Waikato.

At the conclusion of the Centurion Cup competition, a Splice Construction Chiefs Development XV will be selected to play a one-off game against the Blues Development XV.

The competition will be bolstered with emerging talent from across the region that is expected to excite spectators with live, high level rugby before the Gallagher Chiefs take the field.

Teams have been training with plenty of enthusiasm as they look forward to competing for the inaugural Centurion Cup.

Chiefs Rugby Club general manager of rugby Stu Williams said the series was an opportunity to expose more players to the Gallagher Chiefs coaching team.

"The Centurion Cup allows for the increase in player involvement at representative rugby level and will further assist the development of high-performance rugby players within our region," he said.

"We don't doubt it will expose a number of future Gallagher Chiefs who may potentially get called into the Gallagher Chiefs environment."

The Centurion Cup series was created in honour of the six Gallagher Chiefs' centurions: Liam Messam, Hika Elliot, Tanerau Latimer, Stephen Donald, Sam Cane and Brodie Retallick.