KEY POINTS:
The revised format for the 2007 Air New Zealand Cup has rejected repechages and got rid of groups in favour of a 14-team round-robin concept.
However, while initial reaction from the provinces seems favourable, allowing the unions to plan with more certainty, there is one slight flaw in
the new paint job given the competition by the New Zealand Rugby Union - each team will not play three of the 13 other teams.
But which teams? That's the rub. Because the season will allow only 10 round-robin rounds, the NZRU had to find a way of fairly apportioning the draw. That was easier said than done. The NZRU did the maths based on final places in last year's ANZ Cup, ranking Waikato at 1 to Manawatu at 14. However, they found it mathematically impossible to be precisely fair and could only narrow the spread from 21 to 25 "seeding points" for each team.
For example, the winning team each year will not play the fourth, seventh and 11th-ranked teams (a seeding point total of 22, reached by adding 4, 7 and 11). All teams will not have to play opponents within that seeding point range of 21-25.
The upshot is that some teams - particularly Counties -Manukau and Bay of Plenty - may not enjoy quite the benefit of dropping three games that others do.
Auckland does not have to play Wellington or North Harbour - meaning no annual battle of the bridge unless it occurs at the play-offs. It also means no Ranfurly Shield challenge for Auckland is planned. Harbour do not have to play Auckland or Canterbury in early rounds.
Meanwhile, Counties-Manukau (12th last year) do not have to play Otago, Bay of Plenty or Tasman - which seems unfair compared to Auckland and Harbour's lot.
Bay of Plenty, meanwhile, do not play Waikato, Counties or Hawkes Bay and they would have fancied themselves to have beaten the last two in their search for a playoff place. The top eight in the modified round-robin play off in the quarter-finals.
Teams like Counties will be pleased, from a financial perspective, with their draw. The South Aucklanders have home games involving crowd-pullers Canterbury, North Harbour and Wellington. The full list of round-robin "don't plays":
Auckland: don't play Manawatu, Wellington, North Harbour.
Bay of Plenty: Waikato, Counties-Manukau, Hawkes Bay.
Canterbury: Northland, North Harbour, Southland
Counties-Manukau: Otago, Bay of Plenty, Tasman.
Hawkes Bay: Otago, Bay of Plenty, Taranaki.
Manawatu: Auckland, Northland, Taranaki.
North Harbour: Auckland, Canterbury, Tasman.
Northland: Manawatu, Wellington, Canterbury.
Otago: Waikato, Counties-Manukau, Hawkes Bay.
Southland: Wellington, Canterbury, Tasman.
Taranaki: Manawatu, Waikato, Hawkes Bay.
Tasman: Counties-Manukau, North Harbour, Southland.
Waikato: Otago, Bay of Plenty, TaranakiWellington - Auckland, Northland, Southland.
Other features of the draw:
* Thursday night rugby will be played every week after a successful introduction last year.
* North Harbour kick off the Ranfurly Shield season against Taranaki in August.
* Their next challenge is against Waikato.
* If Waikato are successful, Canterbury, Wellington and Northland have a Shield shot.
