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The ITM Cup is a New Zealand domestic rugby union competition, having area from late August by means of Oct (or the very first 7 days of November). It was established in 2006 with fourteen groups, soon after the Nationwide Provincial Championship (NPC) was break up into two separate competitions. The other twelve unions from the NPC now compete in the novice Heartland Championship. From its inception via the 2009 time, it was sponsored by Air New Zealand, the countrywide airline and flag carrier of New Zealand, and referred to as the Air New Zealand Cup. New Zealand also has five groups in Super Rugby, an elite competitiveness which also entails sides from Australia and South Africa.

In March 2010 it was introduced that the Air New Zealand Cup would be renamed the ITM Cup with the addition of building supplies cooperative ITM (Independent Timber Retailers) as the major sponsor. The alter arrived simply because Air New Zealand chose to focus their rugby sponsorship on the country's nationwide staff, the All Blacks.

The 2006 reorganisation of New Zealand provincial rugby changed the NPC's former a few-division setup with two distinctive competitions. This differs from the original two-division setup utilized in the NPC from its creation in 1976 to 1984 in two key techniques. 1st, the two recent competitions are nationwide, whilst the authentic NPC Division Two was split on a North Island/South Island foundation. Next, the NZRU dominated that there would to begin with be no promotion or relegation between the Air New Zealand Cup and Heartland Championship--a attribute that experienced often been current in the former NPC. rugby live stream

Also, the amount of teams was diminished to 26, as the Marlborough and Nelson Bays unions merged to sort the new Tasman union.

The 2006 expansion of the Super 12 and Tri Nations Collection had a significant influence on the Air New Zealand Cup. This growth created the Super 14, including two extra fixtures to that opposition, and also included two more Tri-Nations matches for the All Blacks, at minimum in non-Planet Cup many years. Due to the fact of these adjustments, it was meant for players in the All Blacks choice pool to make only limited appearances in the Air New Zealand Cup.

The 2009 Air New Zealand Cup noticed a various composition than previous several years, following a modest pre-time the Round-Robin ran for thirteen weeks with every crew facing every other when. The top four groups innovative to the semi-finals and the winners from each semi competed for the title in the Grand Ultimate.

To choose which four groups went through to the semi-finals the Rugby Union Reward Details Technique was used.

The Rugby Union Factors Technique:

four details for a earn 2 points for a draw 1 position for scoring 4 attempts one point for getting rid of by seven details or significantly less

So the most details a successful crew can obtain is five and the most a shedding team can acquire is two factors. Semi-Finals are played amongst four teams, the groups are seeded 1 to 4 and the two greatest seeded groups enjoy at house towards the two cheapest seeded groups meaning one performs 4 and two performs 3. The optimum seed still remaining in the grand last performed at house.