2012 ITM Cup explained

The 2012 ITM Cup season was the seventh season of New Zealand's provincial rugby union competition since it turned professional in 2006. The regular season began on 23 August, when Hawke's Bay hosted Auckland. It involved the top fourteen rugby unions of New Zealand. For sponsorship reasons, the competition was known as the ITM Cup and it was the third season under the lead sponsor. The winner of the Championship, Counties Manukau was promoted to the Premiership, the seventh placed Premiership team, Hawke's Bay was relegated to the Championship.

Format

The ITM Cup standings were sorted by a competition points system. Four points were awarded to the winning team, a draw equaled two points, whilst a loss amounted to zero points. Unions could also win their side a respectable bonus point. To receive a bonus point, they must have scored four tries or more or lose by seven or fewer points or less.^[1] Each team was placed on their total points received. If necessary of a tiebreaker, when two or more teams finish on equal points, the union who defeated the other in a head-to-head got placed higher. In case of a draw between them, the side with the biggest points deferential margin got rights to be ranked above. If they were tied on points difference, it was then decided by a highest scored try count or a coin toss.^[2] This seeding format was implemented since the beginning of the 2006 competition.

The competition included a promotion-relegation process with the winner of the Championship receiving automatic promotion to the Premiership, replacing the seventh-placed team in the Premiership which was relegated to the Championship for the following year. The regular season consisted of two types of matches. The internal division matches were when each team played the other six unions in their division once, home or away. The cross-division matches were when each team played four teams from the other division, thus missing out on three teams, each from the opposite division. Each union played home or away games against teams from the other division, making a total of ten competition games for each union.^[3] The finals format allowed the top four teams from each division move on to the semi-finals. The top two division winners, based on table points, received a home semi-final. In the first round of the finals, the semi-finals, the second division winner hosted the third division winner, and the first division winner hosted the fourth division winner. The final was hosted by the top remaining seed.^[4]

Standings

Source: ITM Cup standings 2012^[5]

Championship Division
	Team
1	Counties Manukau	10	6	0	4	317	227	+90	7	3	34
2	Otago	10	5	0	5	292	285	+7	4	2	26
3	Tasman	10	5	0	5	209	227	–18	2	2	24
4	Southland	10	4	0	6	150	276	–126	1	2	19
5	Northland	10	3	0	7	225	319	–94	3	2	17
6	Manawatu	10	3	0	7	198	321	–123	2	2	16
7	North Harbour	10	1	0	9	205	307	–102	2	3	9

Standings progression

Premiership
Team	W1	W2	W3	W4	W5	W6	W7	W8
Auckland	style="background:#D8FFEB"	4 (4th)	style="background:#D8FFEB"	9 (4th)	style="background:#D8FFEB"	14 (3rd)	style="background:#FFCCCC"	14 (4th)	style="background:#D8FFEB"	24 (1st)	style="background:#D8FFEB"	28 (3rd)	style="background:#D8FFEB"	33 (3rd)	style="background:#D8FFEB"	37 (3rd)
Bay of Plenty	style="background:#FFCCCC"	0 (7th)	style="background:#D8FFEB"	4 (7th)	style="background:#FFCCCC"	4 (7th)	style="background:#D8FFEB"	9 (6th)	style="background:#FFCCCC"	11 (5th)	style="background:#D8FFEB"	16 (5th)	style="background:#FFCCCC"	16 (6th)	style="background:#FFCCCC"	16 (6th)
Canterbury	style="background:#FFCCCC"	1 (5th)	style="background:#D8FFEB"	10 (2nd)	style="background:#D8FFEB"	14 (1st)	style="background:#FFCCCC"	14 (3rd)	style="background:#D8FFEB"	19 (4th)	style="background:#D8FFEB"	24 (4th)	style="background:#D8FFEB"	29 (4th)	style="background:#D8FFEB"	39 (1st)
Hawke's Bay	style="background:#FFCCCC"	1 (6th)	style="background:#D8FFEB"	5 (6th)	style="background:#FFCCCC"	5 (6th)	style="background:#FFCCCC"	5 (7th)	style="background:#D8FFEB"	10 (7th)	style="background:#D8FFEB"	14 (7th)	style="background:#FFCCCC"	14 (7th)	style="background:#FFCCCC"	14 (7th)
Taranaki	style="background:#D8FFEB"	5 (2nd)	style="background:#D8FFEB"	10 (3rd)	style="background:#D8FFEB"	14 (2nd)	style="background:#D8FFEB"	18 (2nd)	style="background:#D8FFEB"	23 (2nd)	style="background:#D8FFEB"	28 (2nd)	style="background:#D8FFEB"	33 (2nd)	style="background:#FFCCCC"	33 (4th)
Waikato	style="background:#D8FFEB"	5 (1st)	style="background:#FFCCCC"	6 (5th)	style="background:#FFCCCC"	6 (5th)	style="background:#FFCCCC"	10 (5th)	style="background:#FFCCCC"	10 (6th)	style="background:#D8FFEB"	14 (6th)	style="background:#D8FFEB"	24 (5th)	style="background:#D8FFEB"	28 (5th)
Wellington	style="background:#D8FFEB"	4 (3rd)	style="background:#D8FFEB"	14 (1st)	style="background:#FFCCCC"	14 (4th)	style="background:#D8FFEB"	19 (1st)	style="background:#FFCCCC"	20 (3rd)	style="background:#D8FFEB"	29 (1st)	style="background:#D8FFEB"	34 (1st)	style="background:#D8FFEB"	39 (2nd)
Championship
Team	W1	W2	W3	W4	W5	W6	W7	W8
Counties Manukau	style="background:#D8FFEB"	5 (1st)	style="background:#FFCCCC"	6 (1st)	style="background:#D8FFEB"	16 (1st)	style="background:#D8FFEB"	21 (1st)	style="background:#D8FFEB"	26 (1st)	style="background:#FFCCCC"	27 (1st)	style="background:#FFCCCC"	29 (1st)	style="background:#D8FFEB"	34 (1st)
Manawatu	style="background:#FFCCCC"	0 (5th)	style="background:#FFCCCC"	0 (7th)	style="background:#FFCCCC"	5 (5th)	style="background:#D8FFEB"	9 (5th)	style="background:#FFCCCC"	10 (6th)	style="background:#FFCCCC"	10 (6th)	style="background:#D8FFEB"	15 (5th)	style="background:#FFCCCC"	16 (6th)
North Harbour	style="background:#FFCCCC"	0 (6th)	style="background:#FFCCCC"	0 (5th)	style="background:#FFCCCC"	1 (7th)	style="background:#FFCCCC"	2 (7th)	style="background:#FFCCCC"	2 (7th)	style="background:#FFCCCC"	4 (7th)	style="background:#FFCCCC"	4 (7th)	style="background:#D8FFEB"	9 (7th)
Northland	style="background:#FFCCCC"	1 (4th)	style="background:#D8FFEB"	5 (4th)	style="background:#D8FFEB"	9 (4th)	style="background:#D8FFEB"	13 (3rd)	style="background:#FFCCCC"	15 (4th)	style="background:#FFCCCC"	16 (4th)	style="background:#FFCCCC"	16 (4th)	style="background:#FFCCCC"	17 (5th)
Otago	style="background:#D8FFEB"	5 (2nd)	style="background:#FFCCCC"	5 (3rd)	style="background:#D8FFEB"	9 (3rd)	style="background:#FFCCCC"	9 (4th)	style="background:#D8FFEB"	19 (2nd)	style="background:#FFCCCC"	20 (2nd)	style="background:#FFCCCC"	25 (2nd)	style="background:#FFCCCC"	26 (2nd)
Southland	style="background:#FFCCCC"	0 (7th)	style="background:#FFCCCC"	0 (6th)	style="background:#FFCCCC"	1 (6th)	style="background:#D8FFEB"	7 (6th)	style="background:#D8FFEB"	11 (5th)	style="background:#FFCCCC"	15 (5th)	style="background:#FFCCCC"	15 (6th)	style="background:#D8FFEB"	19 (4th)
Tasman	style="background:#D8FFEB"	4 (3rd)	style="background:#FFCCCC"	5 (2nd)	style="background:#D8FFEB"	10 (2nd)	style="background:#FFCCCC"	15 (2nd)	style="background:#FFCCCC"	15 (3rd)	style="background:#FFCCCC"	16 (3rd)	style="background:#D8FFEB"	20 (3rd)	style="background:#FFCCCC"	24 (3rd)
The table above shows each team's progression throughout the season. For each week, their cumulative points total is shown with the overall division log position in brackets.
Key:	win	draw	loss	bye

Regular season

The 2012 ITM Cup was played across eight weeks with every team playing two Tuesday or Wednesday night fixtures in a double-up round where they played twice that week. The competition started on Thursday, 23 August, with Hawke's Bay taking on Auckland at McLean Park.^[6]

Week 8

Play-offs

Semi-finals

Premiership

Finals

Premiership

FB 15 Tom Taylor RW 14 OC 13 IC 12 LW 11 Johnny McNicholl FH 10 Tyler Bleyendaal SH 9 N8 8 Luke Whitelock OF 7 BF 6 George Whitelock (c) RL 5 LL 4 TP 3 HK 2 LP 1 Wyatt Crockett Replacements: HK 16 PR 17 LK 18 FL 19 SH 20 CE 21 WG 22

FB 15 Charles Piutau RW 14 Ben Lam OC 13 Malakai Fekitoa IC 12 Hadleigh Parkes LW 11 FH 10 Gareth Anscombe SH 9 N8 8 OF 7 Daniel Braid (c) BF 6 Steven Luatua RL 5 LL 4 TP 3 HK 2 LP 1 Replacements: HK 16 PR 17 LK 18 FL 19 FL 20 FH 21 WG 22

Statistics

Leading point scorers

No.	Player	Team	Points	Average	Details
1			191	15.92	4, 30, 37, 0
2			182	15.17	2, 41, 30, 0
3			138	13.80	2, 25, 26, 0
4			129	10.75	0, 18, 31, 0
5			120	12.00	5, 25, 15, 0
6			107	10.70	1, 21, 20, 0
7			91	11.38	4, 13, 15, 0
8			85	9.44	1, 13, 18, 0
9			79	7.90	2, 12, 15, 0
10			78	8.67	0, 9, 20, 0

Source: The weekly reviews of the matches published on provincial.rugby (see "Report" in the individual match scoring stats).

Leading try scorers

No.	Player	Team	Tries	Average
1			10	0.91
2			7	0.70
3			7	0.64
4			7	0.58
5			7	0.58
6			7	0.58
7			6	0.55
8			6	0.55
9			6	0.50
10			6	0.50

Source: The weekly reviews of the matches published on provincial.rugby (see "Report" in the individual match scoring stats).

Points by week

Team	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	Total	Average
Auckland	36	29	70	49	32	22	16	37	86	62	22	18	36	16	24	19	322	252	32.20	25.20
Bay of Plenty	22	37	31	19	13	47	43	31	41	42	57	55	3	17	22	63	232	311	23.20	31.10
Canterbury	22	25	69	14	20	12	9	18	52	27	84	0	56	11	107	25	419	132	41.90	13.20
Counties Manukau	30	9	30	37	74	28	43	12	31	28	18	22	28	32	63	59	317	227	31.70	22.70
Hawke's Bay	29	36	52	60	6	22	7	35	42	41	21	15	7	20	6	72	170	301	21.70	30.10
Manawatu	11	30	16	59	36	47	23	20	28	31	18	59	55	58	11	17	198	334	19.80	33.40
North Harbour	22	42	3	36	32	45	20	23	42	81	28	34	16	36	42	10	205	307	20.50	30.70
Northland	34	46	29	27	38	50	20	17	31	32	31	47	11	56	31	44	225	319	22.50	31.90
Otago	46	34	19	31	15	10	12	43	93	38	15	21	73	84	19	24	292	285	29.20	28.50
Southland	9	30	8	40	10	15	45	20	27	17	16	96	18	47	17	11	150	276	15.00	27.60
Taranaki	37	22	49	40	22	6	18	9	64	74	59	18	57	64	17	33	323	266	32.30	26.60
Tasman	25	22	40	49	27	3	30	30	13	39	19	20	17	3	38	61	209	227	20.90	22.70
Waikato	42	22	27	29	22	32	28	35	27	52	20	19	78	38	28	3	272	230	27.20	23.00
Wellington	30	11	70	23	12	20	29	13	30	43	70	54	49	22	33	17	323	203	32.30	20.30

Source: ITM Cup Fixtures and Results 2012^[7]

Tries by week

Team	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	Total	Average
Auckland	3	2	9	4	4	3	1	4	8	9	1	0	5	1	2	1	33	24	3.30	2.40
Bay of Plenty	3	4	3	1	2	5	4	1	5	5	6	6	0	2	3	8	26	32	2.60	3.20
Canterbury	1	3	8	1	3	2	0	2	6	3	12	0	7	1	14	3	51	15	5.10	1.50
Counties Manukau	4	0	3	3	9	4	5	0	4	3	0	1	4	4	7	8	36	23	3.60	2.30
Hawke's Bay	2	3	5	7	0	3	1	4	5	5	0	0	1	2	0	9	14	33	1.40	3.30
Manawatu	1	3	1	8	4	6	2	3	3	4	2	8	6	7	1	2	20	41	2.00	4.10
North Harbour	3	6	0	5	4	4	3	2	5	8	4	5	1	5	5	1	25	36	2.50	3.60
Northland	4	4	3	3	2	6	2	1	4	2	5	5	1	7	5	6	26	34	2.60	3.40
Otago	4	4	1	3	0	1	0	5	11	5	0	0	9	11	1	2	26	31	2.60	3.10
Southland	0	4	1	5	1	0	5	3	2	2	1	14	2	5	2	1	14	34	1.40	3.40
Taranaki	4	3	5	5	3	0	2	0	7	8	8	2	6	9	3	4	38	31	3.80	3.10
Tasman	3	1	5	5	4	0	3	3	2	5	1	2	2	0	4	6	24	22	2.40	2.20
Waikato	6	3	3	3	3	4	1	4	3	6	2	1	11	5	3	0	32	26	3.20	2.60
Wellington	3	1	9	3	2	3	4	1	4	4	8	6	7	3	4	3	41	24	4.10	2.40

For

Against

Source: The weekly reviews of the matches published on provincial.rugby (see "Report" in the individual match scoring stats).

Sanctions

Player	Team	Red	Yellow	Sent off match(es):
Willie Rickards		0	1	vs Bay of Plenty
Samisoni Fisilau		0	1	vs Otago
TJ Ioane		0	1	vs Bay of Plenty
Kendrick Lynn		0	1	vs Otago
Simon Lemalu		0	1	vs Hawke's Bay
Sam Christie		0	1	vs Northland
Vernon Fredericks		0	1	vs Taranaki
Bundee Aki		0	1	vs North Harbour
Justin Davies		0	1	vs Manawatu
Bryce Williams		0	1	vs Manawatu
Rob Verbakel		0	1	vs Southland
Filo Paulo		0	1	vs Northland
Piers Francis		0	1	vs Bay of Plenty
Tanerau Latimer		0	1	vs Hawke's Bay
Eric Sione		0	1	vs Auckland
Johnny McNicholl		0	1	vs Waikato
Jeremy Thrush		0	1	vs Bay of Plenty
Mahonri Schwalger		0	1	vs Auckland
Sean Brookman		0	1	vs Counties Manukau
Jack Ram		0	1	vs Bay of Plenty
Tawera Kerr-Barlow		0	1	vs Taranaki
Hugh Blake		0	1	vs Auckland
Liaki Moli		0	1	vs Otago
Maama Vaipulu		0	1	vs Northland
Maselino Paulino		0	1	vs Waikato
Jarrad Hoeata		0	1	vs Wellington
Filipo Levi		0	1	vs Otago
Telusa Veainu		0	1	vs Wellington

Ranfurly Shield

See also: Ranfurly Shield 2010–19.

Pre-season challenges

See also

• 2012 Heartland Championship

Notes and References

1. News: Adjustment to Mitre 10 Heartland Championship bonus points system. Rugby Heartland. 2 September 2016.
2. Web site: New Zealand Rugby Union Competition Regulations Handbook 2016. New Zealand Rugby. 1 September 2017. 12 July 2019. https://web.archive.org/web/20190712231129/http://files.allblacks.com/legal_and_judicial/NZR_2016_Competitions_Regulations_Handbook.pdf. dead .
3. Web site: 2010 ITM Cup Competition Structures. Manawatu Rugby Union. 7 August 2010. dead. https://archive.today/20130223161744/http://www.manawaturugby.co.nz/article/1863.html. 23 February 2013 .
4. Web site: ITM Cup Finals schedule. All Blacks. 24 October 2012. dead. https://web.archive.org/web/20130116061427/http://itmcup.co.nz/itmCupnews/20886/ITM-Cup-Finals-schedule. 16 January 2013 .
5. Web site: Historical Standings. New Zealand Rugby. 1 October 2022.
6. Web site: 2012 ITM Cup Draw. ITM Cup. 9 March 2012. https://web.archive.org/web/20130208162433/http://northharbourrugby.co.nz/media/documents/PDF/2012_ITM_Cup_Draw.pdf. 8 February 2013. dead .
7. Web site: Historical Fixtures and Results. New Zealand Rugby. 1 October 2022.