Key information
The National Provincial Championship (NPC) is a domestic rugby competition for New Zealand provincial unions consisting of 14 teams.
The teams vying for the NPC title are:
- Auckland
- Bay of Plenty
- Canterbury
- Counties Manukau
- Hawke's Bay
- Manawatū
- North Harbour
- Northland
- Otago
- Southland
- Taranaki
- Tasman
- Waikato
- Wellington
NPC Trophy during the 2025 NPC Final
Alongside the NPC, the Ranfurly Shield is also on the line. Whoever holds the Ranfurly Shield must accept challenges from visiting teams at each home game that takes place while they are shield holders - like the JJ Stewart Trophy in the Farah Palmer Cup competition and the Bill Osborne Taonga in the Heartland Championship.
Competition structure
The competition consists of a round robin structure with each team playing ten fixtures, including five home and five away games. Fixtures are determined based off seedings from the previous year with teams ranked 1, 3, 5, 7, 9, 11, 13 playing each other, and evens 2, 4, 6, 8, 10, 12, 14 playing each other, whilst there are four crossover games in which Provincial Union’s select teams based of the following criteria.
The way in which the crossover matches is determined follows:
First round of picks
In the first round of picks, matches are selected by odd-seeded teams in reverse order of seeding. These matches will be played as home matches for the odd seeded teams.
- Seed 13
- Seed 11
- Seed 9
- Seed 7
- Seed 5
- Seed 3
- Seed 1
Second round of picks
In the second round of picks, matches are selected by even-seeded teams in reverse order of seeding. These matches will be played as home matches for the even seeded teams.
- Seed 14
- Seed 12
- Seed 10
- Seed 8
- Seed 6
- Seed 4
- Seed 2
Third round of picks
In the third round of picks, matches are selected by odd-seeded teams in order of seeding. These matches will be played as home matches for the even seeded teams.
- Seed 1
- Seed 3
- Seed 5
- Seed 7
- Seed 9
- Seed 11
- Seed 13
Fourth round of picks
In the fourth round of picks, matches are selected by even seeded teams in order of seeding. These matches will be played as home matches for the odd-seeded teams.
- Seed 2
- Seed 4
- Seed 6
- Seed 8
- Seed 10
- Seed 12
- Seed 14
A team may not select a team that it will already play (for example, as a result of a pick made by another team in a previous round).
Where the process necessarily results in the situation described in the previous paragraph, the previous two picks in that round will be ruled void and must be made again (and must be made differently). The above selections will be made, on a sequential basis, on the same day at an event dedicated for this purpose.
Finals
The eight teams with the highest number of competition points at the completion of the round robin will proceed to the finals round.
Based on the competition points, each finals round will be played as follows:
Quarterfinal 1: 1 plays 8
Quarterfinal 2: 2 plays 7
Quarterfinal 3: 3 plays 6
Quarterfinal 4: 4 plays 5
Semifinal 1 top ranking quarter-final winner hosts against lowest-ranked quarterfinal winner; and semifinal 2 second highest ranked quarter-final winner hosts third highest ranked quarterfinal winner.
The winning semi-finalists will play each other in the NPC final.
The venue for all finals round matches will be the home venue of the team with the higher finals ranking of the two teams participating.
In the event that teams are tied at the end of a finals round match, the winner will be determined by the following criteria, which shall be applied in the order in which they appear until a result is determined:
a. The winner following a further ten (10) minutes of extra time each way.
b. The team scoring the most tries in the match (including extra time).
c. The winner of any Round Robin match played in that year between the two teams.
d. The team having the higher points difference at the end of the Round Robin.
e. The team that scored the most tries in the Round Robin.
f. The team that scored the most points in the Round Robin.
g. The team with the higher finals ranking.