2024 Bunnings NPC

2024 Bunnings NPC season
Countries	New Zealand
Date	9 August – 26 October 2024
Matches played	22
Tries scored	167 (average 7.6 per match)
Top point scorer	William Havili (Tasman) 40 points
Top try scorer	Kade Banks (North Harbour) 6 tries
Official website
www.provincial.rugby
← 2023 2025 →

The 2024 Bunnings NPC season is the nineteenth season of New Zealand's provincial rugby union competition, the National Provincial Championship, since it turned professional in 2006. It involves the top 14 provincial rugby unions of New Zealand. For sponsorship reasons, the competition is known as the Bunnings NPC. The regular season began on 9 August 2024, when 2023 champions Taranaki hosted Counties Manukau. The final is scheduled for 26 October 2024.

Under the current competition format, which is a continuation of that of 2023, the 14 provincial unions participating in the Bunnings NPC are grouped in one single division, ranked on one single competition table and play for one NPC title.^[1][2]

All provincial teams play ten games during the regular season (round robin): five games are played at the provincial union's home ground and five games are away games. The seven teams that finished the previous season in 1st, 3rd, 5th, 7th, 9th, 11th and 13th place will play each other as well as four cross-over matches against the teams that finished 2nd, 4th, 6th, 8th, 10th, 12th and 14th. Likewise, the teams that finished 2nd, 4th, 6th, 8th, 10th, 12th and 14th will also play each other as well as four cross-over games against the provinces that were ranked 1st, 3rd, 5th, 7th, 9th, 11th or 13th at the end of the previous season.^[1][2] The ten round robin games in 2024 are played over a period of nine weeks (starting on Friday 9 August 2024) and include one mid-week game to be played on a Wednesday night.^[3]

The regular season is followed by quarter-finals to be played by the eight highest ranked teams on the competition table. The finals rankings are determined by the number of competition points earned during the regular season. Competition points can be gained in the following way: four points are awarded to the winning team, two points to each team for a draw, and no points for a loss. Teams can also receive a bonus point if they score four or more tries in a match, or lose by seven points or less.^[4]

If two or more provincial teams finish with an equal number of competition points, the following tiebreaker rules apply. If two unions are tied, the union which has defeated the other in a head-to-head is placed higher. In case of a draw between them, the side with the biggest points difference is ranked higher. If three or more unions are tied and they have all played each other, the team with most competition points in that year against the other tied unions is ranked higher; if they have not all played each other, the team with the biggest points difference in the round robin is ranked higher. In all cases, if these unions are still tied, the ranking is decided by the highest number of tries scored, the most points scored, or a coin toss.^[1]

The quarter-finals are played as follows, with the highest-ranked team hosting:

QF 1: 1 v 8;

QF 2: 2 v 7;

QF 3: 3 v 6; and

QF 4: 4 v 5.

In the semi-finals, the highest-ranked quarter-final winner hosts the lowest-ranked quarter-final winner and the second highest-ranked quarter-final winner hosts the third highest-ranked quarter-final winner.

The NPC Final will be played between the two semi-final winners, again at the home venue of the team with the higher finals ranking.^[1][2]

The rules governing Ranfurly Shield Challenges state that every home game during the regular season played by the union that holds the Ranfurly Shield is a mandartory challenge match. No challenge matches will be played after the regular season has ended (i.e., during the finals). A holder who competes in the Bunnings NPC must also accept at least two challenges from unions competing in the Heartland Championship, including a challenge lodged by the winner of the Meads Cup at the end of the previous season. These non-mandatory challenge matches must be played before the start of the NPC season.^[1]

Pos	Team	Pld	W	D	L	PF	PA	PD	TF	TA	TB	LB	Pts	Qualification
1	Bay of Plenty	4	3	0	1	130	103	+27	19	13	4	1	17	Bunnings NPC quarter-finals
2	Hawke's Bay (RS)	3	3	0	0	127	79	+48	19	10	3	0	15
3	Wellington	3	3	0	0	94	71	+23	13	11	3	0	15
4	Tasman	3	3	0	0	124	31	+93	16	4	2	0	14
5	Taranaki	3	2	0	1	89	65	+24	13	10	2	1	11
6	Canterbury	3	2	0	1	68	64	+4	9	7	1	0	9
7	Otago	3	2	0	1	71	73	−2	8	10	1	0	9
8	North Harbour	3	1	0	2	95	94	+1	13	14	2	1	7
9	Waikato	3	1	0	2	76	99	−23	11	13	2	0	6
10	Southland	3	1	0	2	63	83	−20	9	10	1	0	5
11	Northland	3	1	0	2	86	107	−21	10	17	1	0	5
12	Auckland	3	0	0	3	67	83	−16	9	9	0	2	2
13	Counties Manukau	4	0	0	4	69	149	−80	8	22	1	1	2
14	Manawatu	3	0	0	3	70	128	−58	10	17	1	0	1

Each team's cumulative points total is shown for every week of the regular season with the overall log position in brackets.

Team	W1	W2	W3	W4	W5	W6	W7	W8	W9	QF	SF	Final
Auckland	0 (10th)	1 (13th)	2 (12th)
Bay of Plenty	10 (1st)	15 (1st)	17 (1st)
Canterbury	5 (4th)	5 (7th)	9 (6th)
Counties Manukau	1 (9th)	2 (12th)	2 (13th)
Hawke's Bay	5 (5th)	10 (2nd)	15 (2nd)
Manawatu	0 (14th)	0 (14th)	1 (14th)
North Harbour	1 (8th)	2 (11th)	7 (8th)
Northland	0 (12th)	5 (6th)	5 (11th)
Otago	0 (11th)	4 (10th)	9 (7th)
Southland	4 (7th)	4 (9th)	5 (10th)
Taranaki	5 (3rd)	6 (5th)	11 (5th)
Tasman	5 (2nd)	9 (4th)	14 (4th)
Waikato	0 (13th)	5 (8th)	6 (9th)
Wellington	5 (6th)	10 (3rd)	15 (3rd)
Key:	Win	Draw	Loss	No game	DNQ = did not qualify

In the regular season of the 2024 Bunnings NPC, each team plays 10 games over a period of nine weeks, including one mid-week game. The competition started on 9 August 2024, when Taranaki beat Counties Manukau 31–15 in New Plymouth.^[3] The first Ranfurly Shield defence of the season took place on 17 August 2024, when Hawke's Bay beat Southland 31–17 in Napier.^[5]

	Quarter-finals					Semi-finals					Final
	1
	8
	4
	5
	2
	7
	3
	6

No.	Player	Team	Points	Average	Details
1	William Havili	Tasman	40	13.33	0 T, 11 C, 6 P, 0 D
2	Lincoln McClutchie	Hawke's Bay	38	12.67	2 T, 8 C, 4 P, 0 D
3	Josh Jacomb	Taranaki	34	11.33	2 T, 9 C, 2 P, 0 D
4	Cam Millar	Otago	31	10.33	0 T, 8 C, 5 P, 0 D
	Rivez Reihana	Northland	31	10.33	0 T, 8 C, 5 P, 0 D
6	Kade Banks	North Harbour	30	10.00	6 T, 0 C, 0 P, 0 D
	Tane Edmed	North Harbour	30	10.00	0 T, 9 C, 4 P, 0 D
8	Jackson Garden-Bachop	Wellington	29	9.67	0 T, 7 C, 5 P, 0 D
9	Kaleb Trask	Bay of Plenty	21	7.00	0 T, 9 C, 1 P, 0 D
10	Joe Johnston	Bay of Plenty	20	5.00	4 T, 0 C, 0 P, 0 D

Source: The weekly reviews of the matches published on provincial.rugby (see "Report" in the individual match scoring stats).

No.	Player	Team	Tries	Average
1	Kade Banks	North Harbour	6	2.00
2	Joe Johnston	Bay of Plenty	4	1.00
3	Nigel Ah Wong	Auckland	3	1.00
	Tjay Clarke	Wellington	3	1.00
	Brodie McAlister	Canterbury	3	1.00
	Kini Naholo	Taranaki	3	1.50
	Shaun Stevenson	North Harbour	3	1.00
	Timoci Tavatavanawai	Tasman	3	1.00
	James Tofa	Manawatu	3	1.00
10	29 players		2

Team	1		2		3		4		5		6		7		8		9		10		Total		Average
Auckland	21	29	25	27	21	27															67	83	22.33	27.67
Bay of Plenty	36	21	44	31	24	20	26	31													130	103	32.50	25.75
Canterbury	34	21	7	22	27	21															68	64	22.67	21.33
Counties Manukau	15	31	31	44	20	26	3	48													69	149	17.25	37.25
Hawke's Bay	41	32	31	17	55	30															127	79	42.33	26.33
Manawatu	21	54	18	35	31	39															70	128	23.33	42.67
North Harbour	32	41	20	24	43	29															95	94	31.67	31.33
Northland	21	34	35	18	30	55															86	107	28.67	35.67
Otago	13	22	27	25	31	26															71	73	23.67	24.33
Southland	22	13	17	31	24	39															63	83	21.00	27.67
Taranaki	31	15	19	26	39	24															89	65	29.67	21.67
Tasman	54	21	22	7	48	3															124	31	41.33	10.33
Waikato	21	36	26	20	29	43															76	99	25.33	33.00
Wellington	29	21	26	19	39	31															94	71	31.33	23.67

Source: Bunnings NPC Fixtures and Results 2024^[3]

Team	1		2		3		4		5		6		7		8		9		10		Total		Average
Auckland	3	4	3	3	3	2															9	9	3.00	3.00
Bay of Plenty	5	3	6	4	4	2	4	4													19	13	4.75	3.25
Canterbury	6	3	1	1	2	3															9	7	3.00	2.33
Counties Manukau	2	5	4	6	2	4	0	7													8	22	2.00	5.50
Hawke's Bay	6	5	4	2	9	3															19	10	6.33	3.33
Manawatu	3	8	2	4	5	5															10	17	3.33	5.67
North Harbour	5	6	2	4	6	4															13	14	4.33	4.67
Northland	3	6	4	2	3	9															10	17	3.33	5.67
Otago	1	3	3	3	4	4															8	10	2.67	3.33
Southland	3	1	2	4	4	5															9	10	3.00	3.33
Taranaki	5	2	3	4	5	4															13	10	4.33	3.33
Tasman	8	3	1	1	7	0															16	4	5.33	1.33
Waikato	3	5	4	2	4	6															11	13	3.67	4.33
Wellington	4	3	4	3	5	5															13	11	4.33	3.67

For

Against

Source: The weekly reviews of the matches published on provincial.rugby (see "Report" in the individual match scoring stats).

Player	Team	Red	Yellow	Sent off match(es)
Michael Bent	Taranaki	0	1	Week 1 (vs. Counties Manukau)
Cam Church	Counties Manukau	0	1	Week 1 (vs. Bay of Plenty)
Liam Daniela	Counties Manukau	0	1	Week 1 (vs. Taranaki)
Tane Edmed	North Harbour	0	1	Week 3 (vs. Waikato)
William Furniss	Counties Manukau	0	1	Week 2 (vs. Waikato)
Willi Heinz	Canterbury	0	1	Week 2 (vs. Tasman)
Taha Kemara	Waikato	0	1	Week 2 (vs. Counties Manukau)
Du'Plessis Kirifi	Wellington	0	1	Week 3 (vs. Manawatu)
Peniasi Malimali	Counties Manukau	0	1	Week 1 (vs. Bay of Plenty)
Jackson Morgan	Taranaki	0	1	Week 3 (vs. Southland)
Jacob Norris	Bay of Plenty	0	1	Week 3 (vs. Otago)
James Thompson	Counties Manukau	0	1	Week 3 (vs. Tasman)

On 29 February 2024, the Hawke's Bay Rugby Union confirmed that 2023 Meads Cup winners South Canterbury and King Country were the Heartland Championship teams to challenge Hawke's Bay for the Ranfurly Shield in 2024.^[6] However, on 22 May 2024, it was announced that South Canterbury had withdrawn from its challenge for financial reasons and that Whanganui – the 2023 Heartland Championship runners-up – would take its place.^[7]

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