NZ Regional Competition : Overview

In understanding RL in New Zealand, one needs to know that it is strong in some areas but hardly played in others. It suffers from shocking treatment from the Rugby Union biased media and school system, not to mention amateurish administration within itself at times. So to describe the regions below:

Northern: It is based in Whangarei and includes the Northland region north of Auckland.

Auckland / Akarana: It's called Auckland in 2010 and Akarana thereafter. The latter term is a Maori transliteration of the English word Auckland. It is the strongest area for RL and in some areas of the city is the most popular sport.

Counties Manukau: The Southern area of Auckland where the code is sufficiently popular to be given its own team in the national championship.

Waicoa Bay: A region including Waikato, and areas to the west of that province combined including the Bay of Plenty and as far as Gisborne.

Waikato: A province in the northern centre of the North Island, not far south of Auckland.

Bay of Plenty: A region surrounding Tauranga south east of Auckland.

Central / Heartland: It covers the central North Island, from Taranaki, Manawatu and across to the Hawkes Bay.

Wellington: The capital city's team. RL has a solid following in a few areas of the city but overall quite weak. Ironically, it was a Wellingtonian who was responsible for the first RL tour from Down Under and through that introduced the Southern Hemisphere to RL.

South Island: The whole Island is at times combined due to the relatively low population south of the Cook Strait. It has pockets of RL but not strong throughout the whole island.

Canterbury: The strongest province in the South Island for RL and is currently playing as a stand alone team.

Otago: This is the Dunedin team, a small sport in a fairly major city.

Southland: It involves the lowest reaches of the South Island based around the city of Invercargill.

Each year from 2010 will be covered in a series and each will have a link back to this page if a reminder is needed as to where the teams hail from. For the 2010 season, just click here.

Here are some brief highlights from a game in 2016:

Queensland State Championship : 2008-11

For 2008, it was 100 years of RL in Queensland and the state championship was proving successful in this large state. It also marked the departure of Aspley and North Queensland, their replacements being the re-born McKay Cutters and the new Northern Pride playing out of Cairns (pronounced Cans in Australia).
In 2009 the Sunshine Coast returned to bring the number of teams to 12. After that some stability.

2008: The Ipswich Jets won the league with 36 points from Souths Logan (32), Northern Pride (30) and Wynnum Manly (28).

Eliminator: Redcliffe 50-16 Wynnum 50-16.
Qualifier: Northern Pride 40-16 Souths Logan 40-16.
Minor semi-final: Souths Logan 16-14 Redcliffe.
Major semi-final: Ipswich 34-16 Northern Pride.
Preliminary final: Souths Logan 16-12 Northern Pride.
Grand final: Souths Logan 24-18 Ipswich.

2009: Souths Logan were on top of the league for the first time with 32 points from Northern Pride (28), Central Queensland (26) and Sunshine Coast (25).

Eliminator 1: Northern pride 44-16 Norths.
Eliminator 2: Souths Logan 16-8 Tweed Heads
Qualifier: Central Qld 21-14 Sunshine Coast.
1st Preliminary final: Northern Pride 22-10 Central Qld.
2nd Preliminary final: Sunshine Coast 30-26 Souths Logan
Grand final: Sunshine Coast 30-26 Northern Pride

2010: Souths Logan were on top for another year (34 points) ahead of Norths (31), with Sunshine Coast and Northern Pride both on 28 points.

Eliminator 1: McKay 14-4 Sunshine Coast.
Eliminator 2: Northern Pride 28-12 Wynnum.
Minor semi-final: Norths 20-16 Souths Logan.
Major semi-final: Norths 56-12 McKay.
Preliminary final: Northern Pride 28-8 Souths Logan.
Grand final: Northern Pride 30-20 Norths.

2011: Tweed Heads took the league title with a runaway 41 points. Northern Pride (32), Souths Logan (31) and Recliffe (29) were left in its wake. However, a late starter scraped into the playoffs and went all the way to win the grand final.

Eliminator 1: Redcliffe 22-20 Souths Logan.
Eliminator 2: Northern Pride 30-6 Ipswich.
Minor semi-final: Wynnum 24-12 Tweed Heads.
1st Preliminary final: Tweed heads 26-10 Northern pride
2nd Preliminary final: Wynnum 36-0 Redcliffe.
Grand final: Wynnum 16-10 Tweed Heads.

Summary: There were big changes in the rankings of sides. With North Queensland gone, the two other form sides of the previous four years - Redcliffe and Burleigh - had a poor run, and the Northern Pride from Cairns was the best. Souths Logan went from also ran to a top performer too.

Year			'11			'10			'09			'08
Rk	Team	TOT	Rd	Fls	Tot	Rd	Fls	Tot	Rd	Fls	Tot	Rd	Fls	Tot
1	Northern Pride	124	18	10	28	14	20	34	18	16	34	16	12	28
2	Souths Logan	118	16	4	20	20	10	30	20	10	30	18	20	38
3	Wynnum Manly	72	11	20	31	12	4	16	7		7	14	4	18
4	Tweed Heads	68	20	16	36	8		8	11	4	15	9		9
5	Ipswich Jets	66	12	4	16	5		5	9		9	20	16	36
6	Norths Devils	63	7		7	18	16	34	12	4	16	6		6
7	Sunshine Coast	59	5		5	16	4	20	14	20	34
7	Redcliffe Dolphins	59	14	10	24	9		9	6		6	12	8	20
9	Central Q'sland	46	6		6	7		7	16	10	26	7		7
10	Mackay Cutters	42	8		8	11	10	21	5		5	8		8
11	Burleigh Bears	41	10		10	10		10	10		10	11		11
12	Easts Tigers	33	9		9	6		6	8		8	10		10
	Total	791	136	64	200	136	64	200	136	64	200	131	60	191

For the 2012-14 years, just click here.
For the 2004-07 years, simply click here.

France Elite Teams By Season : 2006-07

2nd division side Villefranche XIII Aveyron made it to the cup semi-final

For the season, there were eleven teams in the Elite 1 competition. Lyon-Villeurbanne came in for Marseille XIII Avenir in the Elite One league. SM Pia had won everything in 2005-06 so had a big assignment to repeat that success.

League: SM Pia's took the league title with 54 points with Toulouse Olympique XIII just behind on 51 points. FC Lézignan had 47 along with RC Saint-Gaudens. AS Carcassonne was fifth (45 points).

Finals: In the elimination round, AS Carcassonne defeated UTC 32-11, FC Lézignan overcame Villeneuve XIII 49-22 and RC Saint-Gaudens were too good for Limoux Grizzlies, winning 46-12. The Quarter finals had FC Lézignan prevailing over UTC 44-16 plus RC Saint-Gaudens taking the match against AS Carcasonne 31-15.

The semi final games saw SM Pia proving too strong for RC Saint-Gaudens 30-12. In the other game FC Lézignan defeated Toulouse Olympique XIII 24-12. The grand final had SM Pia squeaking past FC Lézignan 20-16. Nearly 8,000 attended the game which was held at Colomiers, a suburb in Toulouse.

Lord Derby Cup: In the quarts de finale, RC Carpentras XIII were eliminated, along with Lyon Villeurbanne Rhône à XIII, Villeneuve XIII and Limoux Grizzlies.

The demi-finales FC Lézignan were beaten by SM Pia 26-22 and second division side Villefranche XIII Aveyron did well to make it this far but were soundly defeated by AS Carcassonne 60-0. The Finale arrived and Pia secured the treble with a 30-14 victory over Carcassonne. The half time score was 24-10. 5,500 were at Carcassonne to witness the match.

Summary: Pia won everything for for the second year in a row and only a gallant FC Lézignan got near them. For my system of allocating points, Pia had 60, Lézignan 44, Carcassonne 34 and Toulouse 30.

	Rk	Team	Rnd	Fls	LD	Tot
	1	Pia	20	20	20	60
	2	Lézignan	16	16	12	44
	3	Carcassonne	12	6	16	34
	4	Toulouse	18	12		30
	5	St Gaudens	14	12		26
	6	Limoux	11	2	6	19
	7	Villeneuve	9	2	6	17
	8	St Estève Cat	10	6		16
	9	Carpentras	7		6	13
	10	Lyon Villeurb	6		6	12
	10	Villerfranche			12	12
	12	Villeurbanne	8			8
		Total	131	76	84	291

To view the 2005-06 season, please click here.
You can see the 2007-08 season by clicking here.