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.
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:
No comments:
Post a Comment