@boklogic,
i see, so ur comments was another sione laukais uncle moment, o_O
i have seen the ITM ads, and it does infer that its the toughest provincial comp in the world, but thats not what u said originally, ur comment was,,,
"We hear much talk from the Kiwi's about how their ITM cup is far superior to the Currie cup and is the best domestic/provincial rugby competition"
u ambiguously imply that kiwi folks here are the ones saying that comment for Lord knows why, and thats why i asked u for the posts which have been confirmed never existed
but u must be a noob of some magnitude, cos when it comes to advertising, it is standard practice for anyone to claim their product is No1, its as common to anyone as kicking a rugby ball is to saffas, :oP
ever hear pepsi say coke is the best??? nope of course not, they would NEVER mention coke in their ads, just like the ITM dont mention the CC in their promtions.
unless u watched a completely differnt ad to me ???
"Now lets look at the ITM cup. Taranaki, whom successfully defended the Ranfurly shield for a big part of last season were smacked 30-9 by Canterbury and Counties Manukau, who achieved promotion this year were absolutely outplayed by Wellington 55-19."
ive proven many times that ur knowledge on NZ rugby is very very poor, and i think the lack of success that SA have had against NZ in all the top levels of the game has made u rather bitter about anything NZ rugby, cos u dont seem to be able to objectively make rational comments on a matter which seems to rile u up, i dont blame u, if the All Blacks, NZ 7s team and our spXV had SA track record, i would prob be the same,,,,,,,,well prob not, lmao, :oD
but lets break down these games and ur poor simplistic analysis, did u even see the welington team??? it was the pretty much the hurricanes team and the players that were away on All Black duties had their spots filled in by highlanders players.
the wellington forward pack was the hurricanes forward pack (including All Blacks dane coles and vito) bar the openside flanker and the backs had three hurricane players and two highlanders, this team could have easily competed against most spXV teams, dont forget how easily the canes beat the cheetahs.
counties like u said was recently promoted to ITMs premiership division, but they are the currie cups version of the pumas, while the crusaders are the CC equivalent of the sharks, if the sharks had won the 2012 CC.
what u dont mention is that counties put up a good scrap, the score was 15-6 at half time and this was despite canterbury having the superior team.
canterbury were deserved winners, but the match was a lot closer then the scorline suggested and credit to counties cos they will be better of for it, something that u would have know had u watched it, and if u say otherwise, i wont be able to help myslef but remember the siones uncle incident.
"This seems like a case of some serious below par teams and massive mismatches, much like we would see in the Currie cup if we had to let our minnows like Border, EP, Griffons, Valke, SWD, Pumas and Boland in. Sure NZL has more teams competing but are they really competitive or are they fooling themselves?"
again the lack of understanding u have with NZ rugby is very evident.
ITM is split into divisions like the currie cup, the premiership divison is the equivalent of SARUs premier division, and the championship division aka in SA as the first divison of which are both their respective nations bottom tiers.
in the ITM the top 7 teams participate in the premiership division
wellington
canterbury
auckland
waikato
taranaki
bay of plenty
counties manakau
and the next 7 participate in the ITM 2nd tier known as the championship division,,,
hawkes bay
otago
north harbour
northland
southland
manawatu
tasman
while in the CC only the top 6 are in the premier division and the next 8 are in the ist division.
the next is very important for u to read.
both the ITM and the CC have relegation and promotional rules between the two leagues, but unlike CC, the ITM is automatic, meaning if u finish last in the premiership u are automatically relegated to the championship and vice versa for the winner of the championship.
in the CC, the woodenspoon of the premiership and the winner of the 1st division go play each other for the right to compete in the premiership division.
so no boklogic, u saying the
"Currie cup if we had to let our minnows like Border, EP, Griffons, Valke, SWD, Pumas and Boland in."
the closest hypothetical comparison would be if the EP kings were already part of the CC but were relegated in at the end of 2012 for the pumas who were promoted with no relegation/promotion qualifying match.
that is the only way the two comps would be the same.
u also conveniently left out that waikato beat northland 31-29, auckland beat north harbour 27-20 and otago beat bay of plenty 32-29. that would be the CC equivalent of the lions beating leopards 31-29, WP beating border 27-20 and otago beating the cheetahs.
to make comparisons is stupid for many reasons, i mean it was rnd 1 of the ITM FFS and u were already jumping of ur shoes cos of a few blow out scores especially the little rant on tarankai??? o_O
did any of the top teams in the CC ever get a whipping in a blowout score last year??? i seem to recall the bulls getting thumped by WP 40 odd points.
the reason i knew ur argument was full of kak to begin with is cos its widely known amongst all the experts in NZ rugby that the ITM is inferior to the CC.
to SARUs credit, they have tried to maintain the top level creditability of the CC which is why its not uncommon to see Bok players playing in the CC after their Bok duties.
the clubs also have a financial stake in the CC, while the ITM provinces function with one dominant thought in mind and that is keeping the players production factory ticking along while maintains some semblance of a profit.
in short, the ITM is inferior to the CC, SARU put a lot of effort to maintain the CC reputation, while the NZRU had easily made the choice of investing all of its efforts into the natonal teams and spXV franchises, while the ITM and others gets what left.
i dont about the top 3 teams playing each other either, personally i wouldnt have a problem, cos theres nothing to suggest that a CC vs ITM wouldnt go the way of NZ like everything else does, but i couldnt be stuffed hearing another bellyaching piss poor excuses from why SA teams arent preforming, just like we have all year in the spXV.
