Key Information
The Bunnings Warehouse NPC consists of the following teams:
Auckland
Bay of Plenty
Canterbury
Counties Manukau
Hawke's Bay
Manawatū
North Harbour
Northland
Otago
Southland
Taranaki
Tasman
Waikato
Wellington
NPC Regular Season
The Compeititon will consist of a Round Robin structure with each team playing 10 fixtures, including 5 home and 5 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 & evens 2, 4, 6, 8, 10, 12 & 14 playing each other, whilst there are four (4) crossover games in which Provincial Union’s select based of the following criteria.
The way in which the crossover matches will be determined is as follows:
i. 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.
1. Seed 13
2. Seed 11
3. Seed 9
4. Seed 7
5. Seed 5
6. Seed 3
7. Seed 1
Round 2
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.
1. Seed 14
2. Seed 12
3. Seed 10
4. Seed 8
5. Seed 6
6. Seed 4
7. Seed 2
Round 3
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;
1. Seed 1
2. Seed 3
3. Seed 5
4. Seed 7
5. Seed 9
6. Seed 11
7. Seed 13
Round 4
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;
1. Seed 2
2. Seed 4
3. Seed 6
4. Seed 8
5. Seed 10
6. Seed 12
7. Seed 14
In making any selection:
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 RANKING
The eight teams with the highest number of competition points at the completion of the Round Robin will proceed to the Finals Round.
FINALS ROUND
Based on the competition points for the Premier Competition, each Finals Round will be played as follows, with the top ranked team hosting:
Quarter-finals:
QF 1: 1 plays 8
QF 2: 2 plays 7
QF 3: 3 plays 6
QF 4: 4 plays 5
Semi-finals:
SF 1 Top ranking quarter-final winner hosts against lowest-ranked quarterfinal winner; and SF 2 2nd highest ranked quarter-final winner hosts 3rd highest ranked quarterfinal winner.
The winning semi-finalists will play each other in the Premier Competition final. The winning finalist will be awarded the Premier Competition trophy.
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
that match.
TIES IN FINALS ROUND
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.