THE NZ NATIONAL PROVINCIAL CHAMPIONSHIP (NPC)

In 1975, a committee of the NZRFU was set up to organise representative rugby into a national championship. On the basis of performances over the early 1970s 11 unions were selected for the 1st Division competition to compete for the Rugby Cup with each team playing 5 home and 5 away matches. The original 1st Div. teams were North Auckland (now called Northland), Auckland, Counties, Bay of Plenty, Hawkes Bay, Manawatu, Wellington, Marlborough, Canterbury, Otago and Southland.

The format of the NPC was later revamped in 1992 with a reduction to only 9 teams and the introduction of playoffs (semi-finals and finals). The winner of the NPC now receives the National Provincial Championship Cup.

For the NZ Provincial Championships (NZPC) each team plays the other 8 teams in their respective division (4 home + 4 away games). These alternate each year so that if a team plays a team at home one year it's an away game the next year. At the end of the round the top four teams play off in semis to determine the finalists in each division. The #1 ranked team plays the #4 team and #2 plays #3. As stated this game is at the home ground of the team that played away when these two teams meet earlier. The same applies for the finals venue. The winner of Div. 1 is the NZPC champion. The winner of Div. 2 is promoted to Div. 1 and replaces the bottom team of Div. 1. Similarly the winner of Div. 3 is promoted to Div. 2 and replaces the bottom team of Div. 2. Each division winner gets a trophy but the big incentive is promotion to a higher division. The semi finalists in Div. 1 (ie. top 4 teams) represent NZ in the Super-10.

Winners of the 1st Division Championship:

1976	Bay of Plenty
1977	Canterbury
1978	Wellington
1979	Counties
1980	Manawatu
1981	Wellington
1982	Auckland
1983	Canterbury
1984	Auckland
1985	Auckland
1986	Wellington
1987	Auckland
1988	Auckland
1989	Auckland
1990	Auckland
1991	Otago
1992	Waikato
1993	Auckland
1994	Auckland