The New Zealand Rugby Union (NZRU) Board proposes to reduce the competition from the current 14 teams to 12 from 2009, this will be along with other changes to the season and competition structure. The draft decisions on the Provincial Unions invited to participate in the competition have been advised to all 14 Provincial Unions. There will be a final opportunity for any feedback from Provincial Unions before the NZRU Board ratifies its decisions at its meeting on 25-26 September and considers the implementation of the 2009 competition.

An assessment was made of all 14 current Air New Zealand Cup Provincial Unions, based on criteria used to set up the Cup in 2005. These criteria covered population, player numbers, playing history, player training and development, financial performance and position, and governance and administration.

The NZRU has announced the 12 teams who will be invited to participate in the Air New Zealand Cup from 2009, subject to consideration of any final feedback. The teams are: Auckland, Bay of Plenty, Canterbury, Counties Manukau, Hawke’s Bay, Manawatu, North Harbour, Otago, Southland, Taranaki, Waikato and Wellington Provincial Unions would be invited to participate in the 2009 competition.

Two current Air New Zealand Cup Provincial Unions Northland and Tasman, have been advised of the Board’s draft decision that they would not be invited to participate in the competition for 2009.

NZRU CEO Steve Tew said the draft decision was an extremely difficult one but ultimately the Board made its draft determination based on the best interests of New Zealand rugby. “The review process demonstrated there was broad support for a reduction in the number of teams in the Air New Zealand Cup. However, the hard part of that decision is having to consider which teams would not be included in the competition,” he said.

The draft Final Report includes a decision to re-introduce promotion-relegation to provincial rugby with the winner of the AA Rewards Heartland Championship or the equivalent competition, winning the right to host a promotion-relegation match against the bottom-placed team in the Air New Zealand Cup for the right to seek promotion to the competition subject to meeting the requisite criteria. The NZRU has also announced that, based on the decision to reduce the number of teams in the Air New Zealand Cup, the previously signalled review of the AA Rewards Heartland Championship competition would need to be initiated.