The 2006 Air New Zealand Cup is a provincial rugby union competition involving 14 teams from New Zealand. Matches started on Friday 28 July 2006, and the Grand Final was won by Waikato on 21 October 2006.
This season was the first of the expanded competition, which has succeeded the First Division of the National Provincial Championship. It also saw the introduction of four new teams, Hawke's Bay, Counties Manukau, Manawatu and the newly formed Tasman (a merger of Nelson Bays and Marlborough). On 3 June 2006, the Commerce Commission accepted the NZRU proposal of a salary cap for the Air New Zealand Cup. This was mainly so that the talent pool of players could be spread between the 14 rugby unions.
Read more about 2006 Air New Zealand Cup: Round One
Famous quotes containing the words air, zealand and/or cup:
“The air deals blows: surely too hard, too often?
No: it is bent on bringing summer down.
Dead leaves desert in thousands, outwards, upwards,
Numerous as birds; but the birds fly away....”
—Philip Larkin (1922–1986)
“Teasing is universal. Anthropologists have found the same fundamental patterns of teasing among New Zealand aborigine children and inner-city kids on the playgrounds of Philadelphia.”
—Lawrence Kutner (20th century)
“I know it does make people happy, but to me it is just like having a cup of tea.”
—Cynthia Paine (b. 1934)