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Rugby union in New Zealand is structured into four tiers. The top tier is composed of the national representative teams, with the men's team – known as the All Blacks – at the top, followed by other representative sides such as the Junior All Blacks and Māori All Blacks. These national sides are administered by the New Zealand Rugby Union (NZRU). Below this level is Super Rugby, where there are five New Zealand sides, each representing a different region of the country. Below this level is provincial rugby, the third tier – each province has a representative side that plays in either the semi-professional ITM Cup, or amateur Heartland Championship. These provincial sides are selected of Super Rugby players, and club players from within the province. Club rugby is the fourth and lowest tier, and consists of clubs competing in local leagues organised by a provincial union. There are 26 provincial unions and each administrates their own club competitions. Within these provinces there are over 520 clubs who are affiliated both to their province and the NZRU. The number of clubs in each province varies from six for the smallest unions such as West Coast to more than 30 for bigger unions such as Canterbury and Auckland. ==Level 1: ITM Cup Premiership Division== The ITM Cup, renamed from the Air New Zealand Cup after a 2010 sponsorship change, is fully professional and the competition usually runs from late July or early August to late October. From 2006, when the ITM Cup replaced NPC division one, through to 2010, the competition contained 14 teams in a nationwide tournament. Starting with the 2011 season, the ITM Cup was split into two divisions, each with seven teams—the top-level Premiership and second-level Championship. Each division remains a nationwide tournament. With the split into two divisions, promotion and relegation was reintroduced into the top level; the bottom side in the Premiership is relegated to the Championship and replaced by that division's champion. The majority of teams in both divisions of the ITM Cup already participated in the NPC First Division but four were promoted from the NPC 2nd Division in 2006. The current ITM Cup Premiership teams, as of the upcoming 2012 season, are: * Auckland * Bay of Plenty * Canterbury * Hawke's Bay (formerly NPC 2nd division) * Taranaki * Waikato * Wellington 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Structure of rugby union in New Zealand」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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