Powercats22 - I'll attempt to give you a complete answer.
Rugby Union in New Zealand is controlled by the national governing body, the NZRU. Every player is contracted to that body if they are a professional player in New Zealand and a member if they are an amateur, which includes men, women and children.
The essential goal of everything in NZ rugby is success for the national side, the All Blacks. This takes priority over anything else.
Any All Black is also a player for his Super-15 franchise (made up of a number of provinces in the same geographic area,) his province (the ITM Cup) and a club in that province. In descending order, each of these entities has priority to that player's services.
So for example:
-Richie McCaw plays club rugby for the Christchurch Rugby Club in Christchurch.
-Christchurch is a city in the province of Canterbury. Richie plays for Canterbury in the ITM Cup.
-Canterbury is one of the provinces that forms the Crusaders franchise. Richie plays for the Crusaders in the Super15.
-Richie resides in New Zealand and plays rugby here, so is illegible for international selection for the All Blacks and other NZ international teams (below.)
In terms of timing, the Super Rugby competition against franchises in South Africa and Australia commences in February and runs through until June.
In June the international season starts, with New Zealand hosting visiting teams from the Northern Hemisphere, Argentina and the Pacific Islands.
in July, the ITM Cup and Heartland Championship inter-provincials commence and run through until October. Concurrently, club rugby also runs through this period for amateurs, women and children.
At the end of July, the Tri-Nations commences, which is the main event. It usually runs through until September.
In November, the All Blacks send a touring party overseas, generally to Europe.
Five wildcards to all this are:
1. The New Zealand Maori (an international team) that plays sporadically and restricts eligibility to players of Maori extraction.
2. NZ Sevens team, who tour the world playing the IRB Sevens competition in the lower-personnel version of the game.
3. New Zealand-A, who are a second-string international side that plays a little bit irregularly against minor rugby nations and in some competitions arranged for similar sides from other top-tier rugby nations.
4. The Rugby World Cup, which leads to the absence of a touring party later in the year.
5. The Barbarians Club (colloquially, "The BaaBaas.") The Barbarians are an international invitation team, one of the great traditions of rugby. They play against international sides and an invitation to play for it is prestigious.
Most All Blacks will play most of their franchise's Super-15 games, every International that they're selected for and the occasional ITM game for their province if they're returning from injury or needing to find form. On very, very rare occasions they'll turn out for their club side, if there are no ITM matches available and they're needing to gain some match fitness.
Generally speaking, selection for NZ-A, NZ-Maori or the Baabaas will ensure that a player is released from Super Rugby franchise duties and below. NZ 7s selection will ensure release from provincial duties and below.
I imagine all of that is a lot to digest. While this structure is different in other countries (NZ and South Africa are the most similar) it's helpful if you think of the game in NZ as a pyramid, with the All Blacks at the apex and five year-olds in bare feet running around on Saturday mornings at the base, with each tier striving to feed excellence into the higher tiers, as this accurately depicts the Kiwi rugby philosophy.
Last edited by oob : 08-07-2011 at 10:21 AM.
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Noob question from the States
