Table:
| Pos. | Team | P | W | B | PTS |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Hawke's Bay | 4 | 4 | 4 | 20 |
| 2 | BoP | 4 | 3 | 5 | 17 |
| 3 | Wellington | 3 | 3 | 3 | 15 |
| 4 | Tasman | 3 | 3 | 2 | 14 |
| 5 | Taranaki | 3 | 2 | 3 | 11 |
| 6 | Canterbury | 4 | 2 | 2 | 10 |
| 7 | Otago | 3 | 2 | 1 | 9 |
| 8 | North Harbour | 3 | 1 | 3 | 7 |
| 9 | Waikato | 3 | 1 | 2 | 6 |
| 10 | Southland | 3 | 1 | 1 | 5 |
| 11 | Northland | 3 | 1 | 1 | 5 |
| 12 | Auckland | 3 | 0 | 2 | 2 |
| 13 | Counties-Manukau | 4 | 0 | 2 | 2 |
| 14 | Manawatū | 3 | 0 | 1 | 1 |
Fixtures:
Friday 30/08:
- Northland v Southland
Saturday 31/08:
- North Harbour v Counties-Manukau
- Taranaki v Otago
- Waikato v Auckland
- Tasman v BoP
Sunday 01/09:
- Canterbury v Wellington
- Manawatū v Hawke's Bay
Wednesday 04/09:
- Waikato v Northland
My Predictions:
- Northland 9+
- North Habour 18+
- Taranaki 6+
- Waikato 9+
- Tasman 6+
- Wellington 9-
- Hawke's Bay 15+
- Northland 6-
1/3 of Round Robin Notes: With Round 3/9 complete now (the fixtures list I refer to has the playoffs as Rounds 10-12 which is a bit random) I figured i'd entertain myself by doing a bit of a stock-take of where we are at.
The defending champs Taranaki are progressing ok with their 1 loss so far coming away to one of the top 4 teams Wellington, are sitting ok, but the draw is a little unkind to them in that their easier games are mostly at home but they still have to play BoP, Tasman & Hawke's Bay on the road.
The comp progresses through quarter-finals, semis to the final so they'll make the playoffs but will need to work hard to get the home advantage they had last year.
The beaten finalists Hawke's Bay are looking quite good especially this week picking up a win away in Canterbury during the storm week. Time will tell though as its all tough games from now, even this Sunday's match against cellar dwellers Manawatū could be banana peel being the 3rd match in 9 days.
Probably the biggest surprise so far is how average Waikato, and how poor Auckland have been. You know you're having a bad season when Southland are ahead of you on the table.
The current top 5 look likely to make the playoffs, of the rest Canterbury will surely make it in though are battling a lot of injuries. The table feels a bit similar to Super Rugby this year. The top 4-5 are clear but places 6-12 are still probably anyone's to take and really only Manawatū & Counties-Manukau are looking completely out of the running.
Crowd wise - its the usual story. The over-saturated Super Rugby markets that struggled to get people to turn up unless it was a big game struggle to get people to show to the NPC. But the provinces that get one or no Super Rugby matches are having pretty good crowds in attendance from what i've seen so far.