{"id":912679,"date":"2026-10-01T21:26:17","date_gmt":"2026-10-01T21:26:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/912679\/"},"modified":"2026-10-01T21:26:17","modified_gmt":"2026-10-01T21:26:17","slug":"dave-rennie-gives-blunt-verdict-on-the-npc-and-opens-up-on-new-zealands-super-rugby-pacific-participation","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/912679\/","title":{"rendered":"Dave Rennie gives blunt verdict on the NPC and opens up on New Zealand’s Super Rugby Pacific participation"},"content":{"rendered":"

All Blacks head coach Dave Rennie has highlighted the importance of the National Provincial Championship (NPC) and the participation of New Zealand<\/a> clubs in Super Rugby Pacific.<\/p>\n

Last week, New Zealand Rugby (NZR) held a meeting in Wellington where discussions were held on three proposals regarding the future of the game in the country.<\/p>\n

According to reports in New Zealand\u2019s media, a confidential NZR document titled Rugby Summit \u2013 Men\u2019s Elite Competition Possible Options outlines those proposals for the domestic game in Aotearoa.<\/p>\n

Those proposals are: Expanding Super Rugby<\/a> with two additional teams; continuing with the current versions of Super Rugby and the NPC, but merging the Super Rugby clubs with the main provincial unions; or replacing both Super Rugby and the NPC with a new 8-10 team competition.<\/p>\n

Rennie<\/a> revealed that he watched plenty of rugby over the past weekend and feels the NPC still has a vital role to play in the New Zealand<\/a> rugby landscape.<\/p>\n

\u201cI watched a huge amount of footy on the weekend, so I think it\u2019s a great comp,\u201d he told NewstalkZB\u2019s Mike Hosking Breakfast show. \u201cIt\u2019s a part of our rugby fabric here.<\/p>\n

\u201cNPC rugby is tribal, and you\u2019ve got people who, in some of those smaller unions, may not be massive supporters of Super Rugby because a lot of their players don\u2019t get to maybe represent one team they\u2019re scattered a bit, whereas they get a chance on the weekend to go down and watch players whose fathers and grandfathers have worn the jersey before.<\/p>\n

He also emphasised how important the NPC is in terms of producing Super Rugby players as well as All Blacks for New Zealand.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s a real point of difference from a World Rugby perspective; I reckon it\u2019s the greatest provincial competition in the world, semi-pro basically now, and that feeds Super Rugby, which is important to then go on and feed your All Blacks,\u201d he explained.<\/p>\n

Dave Rennie lets slip where the All Blacks will face the Springboks in 2027 as Rassie Erasmus\u2019 men mark 11-year first<\/a><\/p>\n

\u201cSo that\u2019s massively important and needs to be maintained.\u201d<\/p>\n

Hosking then asked Rennie whether the three proposals for the game was something which was part of his thought process and he said: \u201cYeah, it has to be because if I\u2019m not involved in those discussions, ultimately it can have an effect on the All Blacks long-term.<\/p>\n

\u201cMy job is also to look at what\u2019s best for the game. Hence the reason I\u2019m saying that. Look, I think the NPC is massively important and I reckon if you survey the country, you find there\u2019s massive support for that competition.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s been brilliant this year. Real credit to all the players and staff involved in it; it\u2019s been an excellent product and good for our game.\u201d<\/p>\n

Want more from Planet Rugby? Add us as a preferred source on Google to your favourites list<\/a> for world-class coverage you can trust.<\/p>\n

Rennie then reiterated the importance of the NPC and Super Rugby to New Zealanders.<\/p>\n

\u201cI try and keep away from the bottom line stuff. I guess my views are normally around what I think is best for the game; whether those things are all affordable, that\u2019s for others to work out,\u201d he explained.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut I just think that the retention of NPC and Super Rugby is massively important for the game here. I\u2019ve no doubt, fans of provincial rugby love the NPC. I think all us sort of rugby-minded people do.\u201d<\/p>\n

READ MORE: New Zealand Rugby weigh-up shock Super Rugby Pacific exit at crunch meeting as \u2018bombshell\u2019 report reveals three drastic measures<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"All Blacks head coach Dave Rennie has highlighted the importance of the National Provincial Championship (NPC) and the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":912680,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[567],"tags":[64,63,3925,5386,29897,228143,215801,818,10569,1736,44,46678,760,85,29898,134441],"class_list":["post-912679","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-rugby","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-blues","tag-chiefs","tag-crusaders","tag-dave-rennie","tag-highlanders","tag-home-page","tag-hurricanes","tag-new-zealand","tag-news","tag-npc","tag-rugby","tag-sports","tag-super-rugby","tag-united-rugby-championship"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/912679","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=912679"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/912679\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/912680"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=912679"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=912679"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=912679"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}