International Rugby Events
All kind of International Rugby Events, like June Tours, Pacific cups and all others.
Air New Zealand Cup
Last Update:
Waikato
VS.
Auckland
Match scheduled:
Air New Zealand Cup 2009
Date : 24-10-2009
Time : from 08:35 until 10:35
Last Update:
Otago
VS.
Counties Manukau
Match scheduled:
Air New Zealand Cup 2009
Date : 24-10-2009
Time : from 06:30 until 08:30
Competition Explained
The Air New Zealand Cup replaces the former Air New Zealand National Provincial Championship Division One competition. The NPC competition, played across three divisions, was introduced in 1976, with finals introduced in 1992. The Air New Zealand Cup was established following the wide-ranging Competitions Review, which the NZRU launched in 2003. The objective of that Review was to conduct a comprehensive review of all NZRU competitions to ensure they provide the best possible platform for sustaining a winning All Blacks team and maintaining rugby as a game accessible and attractive to all New Zealanders. The inaugural competition involving 14 teams kicked off in 2006. The 2006 Air New Zealand Cup champions are Waikato.
Key features of the revised Air New Zealand Cup format
• The competition will feature the same 14 teams that participated in the inaugural 2006 Air New Zealand Cup – Auckland, Bay of Plenty, Canterbury, Counties Manukau, Hawke’s Bay, Manawatu, Northland, North Harbour, Otago, Southland, Taranaki, Tasman, Waikato and Wellington.
• The revised format will now see all 14 teams playing in a 10-week Modified Round Robin, followed by the quarterfinals, semifinals and final.
• There will be seven matches played each week during the Modified Round Robin.
• Not all teams will play each other during the Modified Round Robin. A formula has been developed to determine which teams do not play each other, based on a team’s competition placing from the previous season.
• During the 10 weeks of the Modified Round Robin, there will be a match played on every Thursday night.
• During the 10 weeks of the Modified Round Robin, two matches will be played simultaneously at 7.35pm on Friday night, with SKY Television broadcasting each match live on separate channels then repeating both matches on alternate channels straight after the live broadcast.
• The 2007 Air New Zealand Cup will kick off on Thursday 26 July 2007 with the Final played on Saturday 20 October 2007.
• Teams accumulate competition points as per normal: 4 points for a win; 2 points for a draw; 1 point for scoring four or more tries in a match; 1 point for losing a match by seven or fewer points.
• The top eight teams at the end of the Modified Round Robin will advance to the quarterfinals with the top four ranked teams hosting the matches. The quarterfinal match ups will be as follows: 1 vs. 8, 2 vs. 7, 3 vs. 6 and 4 vs. 5.
• The first semifinal will be contested between the highest-seeded quarterfinal winner and the lowest-seeded quarterfinal winner; the other semifinal will be contested between the two remaining teams.
• The Ranfurly Shield maintains its special place within the Air New Zealand Cup, with the holder putting the Shield up at all home games in the Round Robin only. If current Shield holders North Harbour win their pre-competition challenges they are scheduled to face Air New Zealand Cup challenges from Taranaki, Waikato, Manawatu, Bay of Plenty and Southland.
RUGBY HISTORY
Rugby football (usually just "rugby") may refer to a number of sports through history descended from a common form of football developed in different areas of the United Kingdom. Today it refers to either rugby league or rugby union.
A ball-game resembling rugby football was a game played by ancient Greeks called episkuros (Greek: επίσκυρος). In Wales such a sport is called cnapan or "criapan," and has medieval roots. The old Irish predecessor of rugby may be caid. The Cornish called it "hurling to goals" which dates back to the bronze age, the West country called it "hurling over country" (neither should to be confused with Gaelic hurling in which the ball is hit with a stick called a hurley or hurl, not carried), East Anglians "Campball", the French "La Soule" or "Chole" (a rough-and-tumble cross-country game). English villages were certainly playing games of 'fute ball' during the 1100s. English boarding schools would certainly have developed their own variants of this game as soon as they were established - the Eton Wall Game being one example.
The "invention" of rugby was therefore not the act of playing early forms of the game at Rugby School or elsewhere but rather the events which led up to its codification.
The game of football which was played at Rugby School between 1750 and 1859 permitted handling of the ball, but no-one was allowed to run with it in their hands towards the opposition's goal. There was no fixed limit to the number of players per side and sometimes there were hundreds taking part in a kind of enormous rolling maul. The innovation of running with the ball was introduced some time between 1859 and 1865. William Webb Ellis has been credited with breaking the local rules by running forwards with the ball in a game in 1823. Shortly after this the Victorian mind turned to establishing written rules for the sports which had earlier just involved local agreements, and boys from Rugby School produced the first written rules for their version of the sport in 1870.
Around this time the influence of Dr Thomas Arnold, Rugby's headmaster, was beginning to be felt around all the other boarding schools, and his emphasis on sport as part of a balanced education naturally encouraged the general adoption of the Rugby rules across the country, and, ultimately, the world.
• The revised format will now see all 14 teams playing in a 10-week Modified Round Robin, followed by the quarterfinals, semifinals and final.
• There will be seven matches played each week during the Modified Round Robin.
• Not all teams will play each other during the Modified Round Robin. A formula has been developed to determine which teams do not play each other, based on a team’s competition placing from the previous season.
• During the 10 weeks of the Modified Round Robin, there will be a match played on every Thursday night.
• During the 10 weeks of the Modified Round Robin, two matches will be played simultaneously at 7.35pm on Friday night, with SKY Television broadcasting each match live on separate channels then repeating both matches on alternate channels straight after the live broadcast.
• The 2007 Air New Zealand Cup will kick off on Thursday 26 July 2007 with the Final played on Saturday 20 October 2007.
• Teams accumulate competition points as per normal: 4 points for a win; 2 points for a draw; 1 point for scoring four or more tries in a match; 1 point for losing a match by seven or fewer points.
• The top eight teams at the end of the Modified Round Robin will advance to the quarterfinals with the top four ranked teams hosting the matches. The quarterfinal match ups will be as follows: 1 vs. 8, 2 vs. 7, 3 vs. 6 and 4 vs. 5.
• The first semifinal will be contested between the highest-seeded quarterfinal winner and the lowest-seeded quarterfinal winner; the other semifinal will be contested between the two remaining teams.
• The Ranfurly Shield maintains its special place within the Air New Zealand Cup, with the holder putting the Shield up at all home games in the Round Robin only. If current Shield holders North Harbour win their pre-competition challenges they are scheduled to face Air New Zealand Cup challenges from Taranaki, Waikato, Manawatu, Bay of Plenty and Southland.
RUGBY HISTORY
Rugby football (usually just "rugby") may refer to a number of sports through history descended from a common form of football developed in different areas of the United Kingdom. Today it refers to either rugby league or rugby union.
A ball-game resembling rugby football was a game played by ancient Greeks called episkuros (Greek: επίσκυρος). In Wales such a sport is called cnapan or "criapan," and has medieval roots. The old Irish predecessor of rugby may be caid. The Cornish called it "hurling to goals" which dates back to the bronze age, the West country called it "hurling over country" (neither should to be confused with Gaelic hurling in which the ball is hit with a stick called a hurley or hurl, not carried), East Anglians "Campball", the French "La Soule" or "Chole" (a rough-and-tumble cross-country game). English villages were certainly playing games of 'fute ball' during the 1100s. English boarding schools would certainly have developed their own variants of this game as soon as they were established - the Eton Wall Game being one example.
The "invention" of rugby was therefore not the act of playing early forms of the game at Rugby School or elsewhere but rather the events which led up to its codification.
The game of football which was played at Rugby School between 1750 and 1859 permitted handling of the ball, but no-one was allowed to run with it in their hands towards the opposition's goal. There was no fixed limit to the number of players per side and sometimes there were hundreds taking part in a kind of enormous rolling maul. The innovation of running with the ball was introduced some time between 1859 and 1865. William Webb Ellis has been credited with breaking the local rules by running forwards with the ball in a game in 1823. Shortly after this the Victorian mind turned to establishing written rules for the sports which had earlier just involved local agreements, and boys from Rugby School produced the first written rules for their version of the sport in 1870.
Around this time the influence of Dr Thomas Arnold, Rugby's headmaster, was beginning to be felt around all the other boarding schools, and his emphasis on sport as part of a balanced education naturally encouraged the general adoption of the Rugby rules across the country, and, ultimately, the world.
