Modern Structure
The Auckland Rugby Football Union consists of 19 clubs from the Auckland isthmus. The premier competition runs from March to August and is split into three segments: the Waka Nathan Challenge Cup from March to May (primarily a pre-season tournament), the Alan McEvoy Round-Robin, and the Championship Round (finals series).
- The Waka Nathan Challenge Cup and Pollard Cup
The Waka Nathan Challenge Cup is contested at the beginning of the season in a knockout style competition. Teams play for the cup and a winners prize of $2500. Winners of the first round progress to the next round of the Waka Nathan Cup, while the losers move to the plate section and compete for the Pollard Cup and a prize of $1000. Round two sees eight teams compete for the Waka Nathan Cup while the losing teams from Round 1 contest the Pollard Cup. From round two Premier Reserve teams will also follow their Premier team. Round three will be the semi finals for both sections. Clubs eliminated will have games organised for them by the ARFU for the following week against other eliminated clubs. The final for both the Waka Nathan and Pollard Cup will be played when the two finalists in each division meet each other in the Alan McEvoy Round Robin.
- The Alan McEvoy Round-Robin
The 16 teams entered into the Premier Competition play a 15 week round-robin, played on Saturdays. The team with the highest competition points at the end of this round will be awarded the Alan McEvoy Memorial Trophy. To determine this, the bonus points system is used. Teams will be seeded 1-16 after this round. The Fred Allen Trophy is also be played for during the round-robin phase. It is similar to the Ranfurly Shield, where it is only up for grabs at home games of the trophy holder. It is not contested in the Championship Round.
- Championship Round
In the Championship Round the sixteen teams are split into the top and bottom eight. It is played over three weeks. The top eight compete for the Gallaher Shield, named after former Auckland and All Blacks player Dave Gallaher, while the bottom eight compete for the Portola Trophy. The first week is a quarter-finals style format where the top seeded team play the bottom seeded team and the second seeded team play the second to last seeded team etc. The four losers from each group of eight go on to play for the Jubilee Trophy (Gallaher Shield Losers) and the President's Cup (Portola Trophy Losers). The next week is semi-finals and the two winners compete for the four trophies mentioned, with the overall champion being the winner of the Gallaher Shield Final.
Read more about this topic: Auckland Rugby Football Union, Local Competition
Famous quotes containing the words modern and/or structure:
“In an age robbed of religious symbols, going to the shops replaces going to the church.... We have a free choice, but at a price. We can win experience, but never achieve innocence. Marx knew that the epic activities of the modern world involve not lance and sword but dry goods.”
—Stephen Bayley (b. 1951)
“What is the most rigorous law of our being? Growth. No smallest atom of our moral, mental, or physical structure can stand still a year. It grows—it must grow; nothing can prevent it.”
—Mark Twain [Samuel Langhorne Clemens] (1835–1910)