22 replies to this topic

[westcoastie]

http://www.stuff.co....ition-structure

I like it.

Like the idea of the inter-divisional games, especially if the Championship sides get to pick which Premiership sides they play.

I like that it will be based purely on the finishing results of the 2010 NPC.

Its entirely conceivable at least 1 and maybe 2, of the Big-5 are going to be stuck in the Championship, and at least for one season if its two of those sides.

Based on 2009 results, we'd see a 7/7 split of
Premiership
Canterbury
Wellington
Hawkes Bay
Southland
Auckland
Waikato
Bay o' Plenty

with a Championship of
Taranaki
Tasman
Otago
Manawatu
North Harbour
Northland
Counties-Manakau

[Shelford]

As a political solution to a footy problem, it's probably the best we're going to get. But while it deals with the politics OK, it still leaves a couple of pretty big footy problems.

1. The interdivisional games feel contrived and no amount of TV draws are going to change that.
2. More than half the teams in each division qualify for the semis. While the automatic promotion relegation brings some excitment to the bottom of the table, the race to the top is a bit ho-hum.

[Kirwan]

http://www.stuff.co.nz/sport/rugby/prov ... ting-model

Two sensible decisions, the 7/7 split and now the lower of the salary cap from 2.2 million to 1.35 million, and a maximum player payment of $60,000 per year with two exceptions allowed of up to $90,000.

That should make Fred happy

[Corkscrew]

Devil's in the detail

Quote

Two division format confirmed for 2011
allblacks.com

...

Automatic promotion - relegation is confirmed for the winners of the Championship. Though the winners will need to conform to stadium and finacial requirements. In view of this Counties have confirmed that they will resume playing at Mt Smart. After a sucessful trial Northland will play their home matches at Albany while North Harbour are seeking a ground sharing agreement with Auckland. This will hopefully culminate into several lucrative double-headers at Eden Park (naming rights to be determined). Further it is believed that the Tasman union is looking into playing some matches at Rugby Park Christchurch following the good response to the Mid-Canterbury - Wanganui Meads Cup final this year.

The Ranfurly shield will be played in an exciting new format of a knock out competiton. This will see the holders playing one match a year against the winner of the 'Ranfurly Challengers Series' involving all the other provincial teams and in an innovation the Australian Super 14 sides, Japan and the winners of the Pacific Island Championship of the previous year. It is anticipated that this will be played at Mile High Stadium in Denver and will be called the 'Shield Bowl' (naming rights to be determined).

[Midge]

I just hope they dont pack a sad when one of the super 14 bases ends up in the bottom 7 and change the rules again

[Unco-ordinated]

Corkscrew said:

Devil's in the detail

Quote

The Ranfurly shield will be played in an exciting new format of a knock out competiton. This will see the holders playing one match a year against the winner of the 'Ranfurly Challengers Series' involving all the other provincial teams and in an innovation the Australian Super 14 sides, Japan and the winners of the Pacific Island Championship of the previous year. It is anticipated that this will be played at Mile High Stadium in Denver and will be called the 'Shield Bowl' (naming rights to be determined).

I'm fine with the rest but what the fuck is this shit? ONE challenge a year? In America? And including foreign teams? The NZRU can piss off.

Edit: Wait, where'd you get that from? I can't find it anywhere. Did you just get me infuriated for no good reason?

[Razbra]

This is one of those things that we won't now if its worked till its finished. I hold my judgement till late 2010.

[Kirwan]

Corkscrew said:

Devil's in the detail

Quote

Two division format confirmed for 2011
allblacks.com

...

Automatic promotion - relegation is confirmed for the winners of the Championship. Though the winners will need to conform to stadium and finacial requirements. In view of this Counties have confirmed that they will resume playing at Mt Smart. After a sucessful trial Northland will play their home matches at Albany while North Harbour are seeking a ground sharing agreement with Auckland. This will hopefully culminate into several lucrative double-headers at Eden Park (naming rights to be determined). Further it is believed that the Tasman union is looking into playing some matches at Rugby Park Christchurch following the good response to the Mid-Canterbury - Wanganui Meads Cup final this year.

The Ranfurly shield will be played in an exciting new format of a knock out competiton. This will see the holders playing one match a year against the winner of the 'Ranfurly Challengers Series' involving all the other provincial teams and in an innovation the Australian Super 14 sides, Japan and the winners of the Pacific Island Championship of the previous year. It is anticipated that this will be played at Mile High Stadium in Denver and will be called the 'Shield Bowl' (naming rights to be determined).

You should have quit at the home games, that would have fooled more people.

[Allstar]

eusa_think eusa_whistle xzxfishing

[Knock On Wood]

The whole two division thing sounds rubbish but this new Ranfurly Shield Bowl sounds like a real innovation xzxsarcastic

[Corkscrew]

Kirwan said:

Corkscrew said:

Devil's in the detail

Quote

Two division format confirmed for 2011
allblacks.com

...

Automatic promotion - relegation is confirmed for the winners of the Championship. Though the winners will need to conform to stadium and finacial requirements. In view of this Counties have confirmed that they will resume playing at Mt Smart. After a sucessful trial Northland will play their home matches at Albany while North Harbour are seeking a ground sharing agreement with Auckland. This will hopefully culminate into several lucrative double-headers at Eden Park (naming rights to be determined). Further it is believed that the Tasman union is looking into playing some matches at Rugby Park Christchurch following the good response to the Mid-Canterbury - Wanganui Meads Cup final this year.

The Ranfurly shield will be played in an exciting new format of a knock out competiton. This will see the holders playing one match a year against the winner of the 'Ranfurly Challengers Series' involving all the other provincial teams and in an innovation the Australian Super 14 sides, Japan and the winners of the Pacific Island Championship of the previous year. It is anticipated that this will be played at Mile High Stadium in Denver and will be called the 'Shield Bowl' (naming rights to be determined).

You should have quit at the home games, that would have fooled more people.

The 'Shield Bowl' is tentatively being named the the 'Hanover Finance Steve Tew Memorial Shield Happy-Game-Fantastico Bowl'.

Too Much?

[Knock On Wood]

Fisher Investments Steve Tew Entertainment Match or FISTEM for short

[mc mong]

yeah i think this is key ... for the financial viability of the domestic game here we need this.

[westie]

I quite like the idea of a 7/7 split. But I don’t like the idea of the 4th team (who finished in the bottom half) being in the semi’s.
I would have the top team being in the final and 2v3 to see who meets them in the final.

Scrape the inter-divisional round, as previously mentioned, it just sounds contrived. In its place I’d have the following…

A knock out competition involving all 26 teams…It would go like this…

The 12 heartland teams + 7 2nd div teams + last placed 1st team in the first round. 20 teams.
The lowest rank team plays at home.
Have the 8 divisional teams drawn out against the 12 Heartland teams.
As there are only 8 2nd division teams this will leave 4 Heartland teams with no 2nd div teams left, so the 4 heartland teams are draw against one another.
What I’m trying to say is, there will be no all 2nd division match ups.
All 2nd division teams will play a heartland teams.
But there will be 2 all heartland matchups. So at least we are guaranteed 2 heartland teams to progress to the next round.

This will leave 10 teams.

These 10 teams plus the 6 1st division teams = 16 teams.
Have the draw so the 6 1st div teams are drawn against the 10 from the previous round.
Again, this will leave 4 non first div teams, so they will be drawn against each other.

This will leave 8 teams / 4 teams / final…

All the way through I’d have the lowest teams play at home.
Rankings to be based on the finishing position of the previous season.
This will mean the Canterburys & Aucklands of this world going to Wanganui & Poverty Bay etc.
More chance of Wanganui selling out than AMI for Canterbury v Wanganui.
Has to be good…

This will be played over 5 rounds, with the top 6 coming in at round 2.

The downside is that if your team is knocked out in the first game, then that’s it. But that’s what a knock comp is all about.

These will have to be mid week matches, as adding an extra 5 weeks isn’t going to happen… But it will be back to basics, like when Auckland played shield matches away against Poverty Bay (I think it was) a few years back, it was mid week, and it created a buzz.

And with the lowest ranked team playing at home, it brings back top rugby to the so called provinces, and gets rid of the inter-divisional round, which sounds like a gimmick to me.
At least this way there is a reason to play a team from outside your division, there is something riding on the game.

[taniwharugby]

some sense at last.

The good thing that appears to have happened this time, is the NZRU (who I have been pretty vocal in my dislike) have finally opened up and taken ideas from others, rather than try and force 1 single dodgy idea on everyone without actually sorting the comp they wanted to demote 4 unions to...

So well done NZRU, PA and the Provinces for finally reaching a resolution that seems be one the majority are agreeing with, as opposed to relctuantly agree.

[Crucial]

Player power got there in the end. I guess it was the Players Collective (or whatever they are called) that made the NZRU finally see sense. They would have faced all sorts of action from 'professional' players losing their livelihood if the proposed second division couldn't pay because it wasn't 'meaningful' and couldn't attract sponsors.
At least a sensible solution was found and the NZRU recognised that there are people out there that are smarter than they are.
All the 'smaller' unions wanted was a realistic avenue for their sport and players without being cast aside to lesser competitions.
It is now up to the fans to embrace the new comp and continue to support their teams.

[HB]

A straight split of the comp doesn't do any favours to the bottom teams, there should still be an avenue for the smaller unions to have a shot at the title/score some upsets.

My suggestion for an interesting competition:
Split in two tiers of seven, play each team in the same tier, 6 games.
Bottom four in the top tier drop, top three in the bottom tier go up, so there is now a top 6, and a bottom 8.
The four teams who have dropped into the bottom tier play each of the teams who remain from the previous round, 4 games. Points are carried to this round from the previous only from the games played against teams who have also gone down/stayed.
The top 6 play a full round robin, 5 games. Points are only accumulated from this round. Then a final between the top two.
10 games for teams that don't make the top 6, 11 for teams that do, and 12 for the finalists.
Top four teams from the round of 6 remain in the top 7 for the next season, along with the best three from the bottom 8.

Pros - one of the teams from the bottom is guaranteed to be in the top for the first round the next year.
- there is the possibility that three teams could go from the bottom 7, to the top 7 from season to season.
- a team that starts in the bottom still has a decent opportunity to win the title.
- there is a good variety of games played.
- it is not really an advantage to be in the top 7 at the start of the season, yet the best team should still win the title.
- the best teams will always play against each other at least once, sometimes two or three times. Potential for revenge games.
- there is something to play for for all teams for each round.

Cons - It is actually more difficult to start the season in the top 7 than the bottom 7.
- teams that go up mid season may find it tough to step up suddenly.
- two of the super bases could end up playing each other 3 times in a season, which could become stale.

[shark]

Kirwan said:

Corkscrew said:

Devil's in the detail

Quote

Two division format confirmed for 2011
allblacks.com

...

Automatic promotion - relegation is confirmed for the winners of the Championship. Though the winners will need to conform to stadium and finacial requirements. In view of this Counties have confirmed that they will resume playing at Mt Smart. After a sucessful trial Northland will play their home matches at Albany while North Harbour are seeking a ground sharing agreement with Auckland. This will hopefully culminate into several lucrative double-headers at Eden Park (naming rights to be determined). Further it is believed that the Tasman union is looking into playing some matches at Rugby Park Christchurch following the good response to the Mid-Canterbury - Wanganui Meads Cup final this year.

The Ranfurly shield will be played in an exciting new format of a knock out competiton. This will see the holders playing one match a year against the winner of the 'Ranfurly Challengers Series' involving all the other provincial teams and in an innovation the Australian Super 14 sides, Japan and the winners of the Pacific Island Championship of the previous year. It is anticipated that this will be played at Mile High Stadium in Denver and will be called the 'Shield Bowl' (naming rights to be determined).

You should have quit at the home games, that would have fooled more people.

Yep, it was almost believable until the start of the second paragraph. I guess it needed to get silly though - we don't want any more shitty little emails from provincial rugby unions who don't see the funny side of a believable hoax atricle being posted on TSF.

[shark]

The NZRU won't take any heat over this until at least 2012, and the public should be relatively intrigued by it for the same reason: it keeps bloody changing. Not just a little, but every couple of years the competition morphs into something else.

2010 will be fascinating with not only semi final spots to play for, but a place in the top seven. It's quite conceivable that 2 or more of the 'big five' could find themselves in the Championship in 2011.

However 2011 will be a write-off. No one will give a toss which division their team is playing in and will only pay a passing interest in where they finish, because we'll all be so excited about hosting the RWC.

2012 could be a year we'll consign to the depths of NZ rugby history. We could start the year having been handed an arse-card by France or someone else at our own RWC just months before, players will skive off to the NH in droves, and people will wake up and realise that even their provincial side has been consigned to some kind of Claytons' second division 'Championship'.

[JK]

Would like to see the interdivisional round scrapped and then at the end of the regular season have the bottom 2 or 3 of the premiership battle it out with the top 2 or 3 of the championship for 3 spots in the premiership for the following season. Would add some real intensity.

The remaining 4 or 5 in the premiership could then do a knockout comp to decide overall winner.

Bottom 4 or 5 in the championship......hmmm....start sorting their shit for next year!

[cricketman]

The Taniwha Lives on. xzxcool

[Scorz]

shark said:

The NZRU won't take any heat over this until at least 2012, and the public should be relatively intrigued by it for the same reason: it keeps bloody changing. Not just a little, but every couple of years the competition morphs into something else.

2010 will be fascinating with not only semi final spots to play for, but a place in the top seven. It's quite conceivable that 2 or more of the 'big five' could find themselves in the Championship in 2011.

However 2011 will be a write-off. No one will give a toss which division their team is playing in and will only pay a passing interest in where they finish, because we'll all be so excited about hosting the RWC.

2012 could be a year we'll consign to the depths of NZ rugby history. We could start the year having been handed an arse-card by France or someone else at our own RWC just months before, players will skive off to the NH in droves, and people will wake up and realise that even their provincial side has been consigned to some kind of Claytons' second division 'Championship'.

Always look on the bright side of life eusa_whistle eusa_whistle eusa_whistle eusa_whistle eusa_whistle eusa_whistle eusa_whistle eusa_whistle

[Red Beard]

So this looks almost identical to the Currie Cup format, except dont they have eight teams in their top division and six in the second tier comp? How will the four additional interdivisional games work, maybe they could be classed as preseason fixtures? Do those games have any bearing on anything or are they just funsies? Does the bottom team from Championship league get relegated every season for the top Meads Cup side?

At the monent I like the look of the proposed changes. It would give teams a maximum of twelve games a season (should they make the finals) whcih I think is about right.