The NZRL Men's National Competition (previously called the National Zonal Competition) is the top-level

rugby league Rugby league football, commonly known as just rugby league and sometimes football, footy, rugby or league, is a full-contact sport played by two teams of thirteen players on a rectangular field measuring 68 metres (75 yards) wide and 11 ...

competition run by the

New Zealand Rugby League The New Zealand Rugby League (NZRL) is the governing body for the sport of rugby league football in New Zealand. SPARC, 2009: 13 The NZRL was founded on 25 April 1910 in preparation for a tour of Great Britain that same year.Coffey and Wood '' ...

. In 2010 the competition replaced the

Bartercard Premiership The NZRL Bartercard Premiership was a six-team rugby league competition that ran in 2008 and 2009. It replaced the now-defunct Bartercard Cup competition as the highest level of rugby league in New Zealand. Matches have been broadcast on SKY Networ ...

following a

Sparc SPARC (Scalable Processor Architecture) is a reduced instruction set computer (RISC) instruction set architecture originally developed by Sun Microsystems. Its design was strongly influenced by the experimental Berkeley RISC system develope ...

funded review and restructure of the

. Since 2019, the competition has consisted of a four-team national premiership and an eight-team national championship (split into North and South Island Conferences) with a promotion and relegation between the two divisions.

Trophies and awards

Senior teams compete for the Albert Baskerville Trophy, which is named after Albert Baskerville, the organiser of the 1907-1908 All Golds tour. Under-17s compete for the Mark Graham Cup, which is named after Mark Graham, the New Zealand Rugby League player of the century. Under-15s compete for the Nathan Cayless Cup, which is named after

Nathan Cayless Nathan Frederick Cayless (born 28 March 1978) is an Australian former professional rugby league footballer who played in the 1990s, 2000s and 2010s, and has coached in the 2010s. He played at representative level for New Zealand (captain), and ...

, the only captain to win the

World Cup A world cup is a global sporting competition in which the participant entities – usually international teams or individuals representing their countries – compete for the title of world champion. The event most associated with the concept i ...

for New Zealand.

Structure

The competition was reformatted for the 2016 season, with Akarana, Counties Manukau, Canterbury and Wellington competing in a national championship. The Upper Central and Mid-Central zones reverted to district teams with these teams, alongside Northland and the South Island districts, competing in four regional championships. The four regional winners then compete in a National Premiership competition, which play a promotion-relegation match against the last placed national championship side. From 2019, this changed again, with a 4-team Premiership and 8-team, two conference (North and South Island) Championship contested.

NZRL Premiership Teams

NZRL Championship Teams

Season winners

Note: *In 2014 Counties Manukau were disqualified from the final for fielding an ineligible player.

References

External links

* * {{Rugby League in New Zealand Rugby league competitions in New Zealand 2010 establishments in New Zealand Sports leagues established in 2010