The Air New Zealand First Division Trophy

A map of NZRU provincial boundaries. The teams in teal are Air New Zealand Cup teams, whilst the teams in light blue are Heartland Championship teams

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Division 2 Fixtures

The Air New Zealand Cup (also referred to by its previous name of the National Provincial Championship, its abbreviation of NPC, or for sponsorship reasons as the Air New Zealand NPC) is New Zealand's professional domestic rugby union competition. more...

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It was founded in 2006 with 14 teams, after the NPC was split into two separate competitions. The other 12 provincial teams from the NPC now compete in the amateur Heartland Championship. New Zealand also has five teams in Super 14, an elite competition which also involves sides from Australia and South Africa.

The competition

The Air New Zealand Cup is held annually. The 2006 competition started in late July; future competitions should start at about the same time. Rugby teams from 14 provincial unions compete in a single division.

Points are earned during the competition based on the following schedule:

4 points for a win; 2 points for a draw; 0 points for a loss; 1 bonus point for scoring 4 or more tries, regardless of the final result; 1 bonus point for a loss by 7 points or less;

The competition is conducted in three rounds:

Round One

At the start of Round One, the 14 teams are split into seeded pools of seven teams each, Pool A and Pool B. For the first season, seedings were based on results in the 2005 NPC; seedings in future seasons will be based on performance in the previous year's Air New Zealand Cup. During Round One, each team will play the other teams in its pool once. All teams will have three home fixtures, three away fixtures, and one bye.

The top three teams in each pool advance to the \"Top Six\" for Round Two. The remaining four teams in each pool enter \"Repechage A\" or \"Repechage B\" pools in Round Two.

Round Two

Top Six

Each team in the Top Six will play the three teams that it did not play during Round One. The three teams with the most competition points in Round One will play two home fixtures and one away, while the other three teams will play one home fixture and two away.

All competition points from Round One carry over to Round Two, and the competition points earned in both rounds will determine seeding for the quarterfinals in Round Three. All teams that qualify for the Top Six automatically advance to the quarterfinals as the top six seeds.

Repechage A and Repechage B

The fourth- and seventh-place teams from Pool A in Round One and the fifth- and sixth-place teams from Pool B in Round One go to Repechage A. This setup is mirrored in Repechage B.

In both Repechage pools, each team will play a single round-robin within its pool. Teams will play one or two home fixtures, with the two teams in each pool that had the most points in Round One receiving two home fixtures. No competition points from Round One carry over to Round Two. The winners of each Repechage advance to the quarterfinals as the seventh and eighth seeds, with the Repechage winner that earned the most points in Round Two receiving the seventh seed.