Shield on line seven times
The Hawke’s Bay Magpies have been spared the might of Auckland and Canterbury in the Bunnings NPC home games, which double as potential Ranfurly Shield defences this year.
In a 10-round, 14-teams Bunnings Warehouse NPC draw announced yesterday, 2021 beaten semifinalists the Magpies have an away game against Canterbury, as they did for a historic first win in Christchurch for 44 years last season, and there will be no game against Auckland unless they meet in the playoffs.
Starting with non-championship Shield defences against Heartland amateur rugby sides South Canterbury and Poverty Bay, the Magpies open the NPC campaign with an away match against Waikato in Hamilton on August 6.
The side will return to Napier for what is expected to be the third shield defence of the season, and the 12th of a reign that started with a 28-9 win over Otago in Dunedin in late 2020, a Friday-night match against Counties Manukau on August 12, 100 years and three days after Hawke’s Bay’s first win in a Ranfurly Shield match.
All going well, there will be seven Shield defences for the Magpies in 2022.
It was Counties Manukau who, in 2013, left the Magpies with the legacy of the shortest reign in more than a century of Ranfurly Shield rugby – just six days after Hawke’s Bay had beaten Otago in Dunedin to claim the shield for the first time since the great era of 1966-1969.
But, ranked third behind only Auckland and Canterbury in shield successes over the years, Hawke’s Bay have a better record in matches against each of the seven prospective 2022 challengers, five of whom have never beaten the Bay in matches for the prize Log o’ Wood.
Other NPC home games, designated shield defences as long as Hawke’s Bay remain the holder, are against North Harbour, Southland, Wellington and Tasman.
North Harbour have been allocated a challenge after a 2021 challenge was scrapped because of the Covid-19 pandemic.
Wellington will be particularly determined challengers having been well beaten in Shield matches at McLean Park in Napier in their two most recent bids in 2014 and 2020, and Tasman will be back for another go after being beaten by eight points in their first challenge against the Magpies last season.
The away matches in the NPC draw following the opener against Waikato are against Otago, Manawatū, Canterbury, and Bay of Plenty, all five being teams that have won the NPC at least once.
The Magpies, beaten NPC semifinalists last year, will not play Auckland, Taranaki or Northland unless they meet in the playoffs, which start with quarter-finals on October 7-9, but the shield is not at stake in championship playoffs.
The new Bunnings Warehouse NPC format, featuring all 14 teams
playing for one title for the first time since 2010, kicks off on Friday, August 5 with Manawatū playing Canterbury in Palmerston North.
The new format was announced in February and sees teams placed into two pools made up of teams with seedings based on the previous season’s standings
Teams are seeded into two conferences based on the previous season’s standings following the round-robin matches and quarterfinals. Teams placed 1 (Waikato), 3, 5, 7, 9, 11, 13 will play in the Odds conference and teams placed 2 (Tasman), 4, 6, 8, 10, 12, 14 will play in the Evens conference in 2022. The round-robin includes four crossover matches per team, where teams from the Odds conference will play teams from the Evens conference.
Odds teams this season are Waikato, Hawke’s Bay, Bay of Plenty, Wellington, Otago, Southland, and Counties Manukau. Evens teams this season include Tasman, Canterbury, Auckland, Taranaki, Manawatū,
North Harbour and Northland.
The FPC Premiership kicks off at 12.05pm on Saturday, July 16 with Wellington playing Canterbury at Porirua Park in Wellington. Defending champions Waikato kick off their season at 4.35pm on the same day against last year’s FPC Championship winners and newly promoted Manawatū.
Premiership teams this season are Waikato, Canterbury, Auckland, Wellington, Counties Manukau, Bay of Plenty and Manawatū. The Championship teams are Otago, Taranaki, Hawke’s Bay, North Harbour, Northland and Tasman.
All NPC and FPC matches will be broadcast live and exclusive on Sky.
The 12-team Heartland Championship features an eightweek round robin with the top four teams going through to the Meads Cup semifinals and the next four teams going through to the Lochore Cup semifinals.
Both finals are scheduled for the weekend of October 22-23.