Promotion-relegation has been scrapped from the national provincial rugby championship this year amid the on-going impact of COVID-19.
The schedule for the rest of the season has been confirmed by New Zealand Rugby with the semifinals and finals to be held with the remaining 11 teams outside of the Auckland region.
Last week NZR announced the NPC would resume minus the three Auckland regional sides - Auckland, North Harbour and Counties Manukau, who it's hoped will play in a Super City competition.
The 11 teams outside of the Auckland region will play the remaining four weeks of round-robin matches, with Premiership and Championship semifinals and finals scheduled for the second and third weekend of November.
The first two weeks of the NPC were played in full before Covid-19 alert level restrictions saw the competition put on hold.
In addition to the scheduled round robin matches, there will be a non-competition match played each week featureing teams that were due to played Auckland sdies.
Any additional, non-competition matches hosted by the Ranfurly Shield holder will not be considered mandatory challenges.
Tasman's Te Ahiwaru Cirikidaveta on the charge against Hawkes Bay in the side's unsuccessful Ranfurly Shield challenge. Photo: Photosport
The first non-competition match will see Tasman hosting Bay of Plenty on Sunday.
"It wasn't an easy decision to remove promotion and relegation, we realise this is disappointing for some teams but with the Auckland region unable to compete, we needed to ensure the competition outcomes are as fair as possible and we also don't know with any certainty that further teams won't be impacted by COVID-19 restrictions before the end of the competition," said NZR's community rugby general manager Steve Lancaster.
"The Super City competition for Auckland-based teams is still an option, we continue to work with the teams and key partners on the feasibility of making this happen."
Waikato and Northland regions are currently operating under COVID-19 Alert Level 3 restrictions, with the teams from those regions currently based in Tauranga and unable to play at home until those regions return to Level 2.
-RNZ
