2025 Bunnings NPC

2025 Bunnings NPC season
Countries	New Zealand
Date	31 July – 25 October 2025
Matches played	21
Tries scored	159 (average 7.6 per match)
Top point scorer	Josh Jacomb (Taranaki) 49 points
Top try scorer	Josh Jacomb (Taranaki) Xavier Tito-Harris (Auckland) 4 tries
Official website
www.provincial.rugby

The 2025 Bunnings NPC season is the twentieth season of New Zealand's provincial rugby union competition, the National Provincial Championship, since it turned professional in 2006. It involves the top fourteen provincial rugby unions of New Zealand. For sponsorship reasons, the competition is known as the Bunnings NPC. The regular season began on 31 July 2025, when Auckland hosted Waikato. The final is scheduled for 25 October 2025.

Under the current competition format, which is largely a continuation of that of 2023, the 14 provincial unions participating in the Bunnings NPC are grouped in one single division, ranked on one single competition table and play for one NPC title.^[1][2]

All provincial teams play ten games during the regular season (round robin): five games are played at the provincial union's home ground and five games are away games. The seven teams that finished the previous season in 1st, 3rd, 5th, 7th, 9th, 11th and 13th place will play each other as well as four cross-over matches against the teams that finished 2nd, 4th, 6th, 8th, 10th, 12th and 14th. Likewise, the teams that finished 2nd, 4th, 6th, 8th, 10th, 12th and 14th will also play each other as well as four cross-over games against the provinces that were ranked 1st, 3rd, 5th, 7th, 9th, 11th or 13th at the end of the previous season.^[1][2] The ten round robin games in 2025 are played over a period of ten weeks (starting on 31 July 2025); this period is one week longer than previous seasons because the competition schedule no longer includes a mid-week game.^[3][4]

The regular season is followed by quarter-finals to be played by the eight highest ranked teams on the competition table. The finals rankings are determined by the number of competition points earned during the regular season. Competition points can be gained in the following way: four points are awarded to the winning team, two points to each team for a draw, and no points for a loss. Teams can also receive a bonus point if they score four or more tries in a match, or lose by seven points or less.^[5]

If two or more provincial teams finish with an equal number of competition points, the following tiebreaker rules apply. If two unions are tied, the union which has defeated the other in a head-to-head is placed higher. In case of a draw between them, the side with the biggest points difference is ranked higher. If three or more unions are tied and they have all played each other, the team with most competition points in that year against the other tied unions is ranked higher; if they have not all played each other, the team with the biggest points difference in the round robin is ranked higher. In all cases, if these unions are still tied, the ranking is decided by the highest number of tries scored, the most points scored, or a coin toss.^[1]

The quarter-finals are played as follows, with the highest ranked team hosting:

QF 1: 1 v 8;

QF 2: 2 v 7;

QF 3: 3 v 6; and

QF 4: 4 v 5.

In the semi-finals, the highest-ranked quarter-final winner hosts the lowest-ranked quarter-final winner and the second highest-ranked quarter-final winner hosts the third highest-ranked quarter-final winner.

The NPC Final will be played between the two semi-final winners, again at the home venue of the team with the higher finals ranking.^[1][2]

The rules governing Ranfurly Shield Challenges state that every home game during the regular season played by the union that holds the Ranfurly Shield is a mandartory challenge match. No challenge matches will be played after the regular season has ended (i.e., during the finals). A holder who competes in the Bunnings NPC must also accept at least two challenges from unions competing in the Heartland Championship, including a challenge lodged by the winner of the Meads Cup at the end of the previous season. These non-mandatory challenge matches must be played before the start of the NPC season.^[1]

The current standings for the 2025 Bunnings NPC season are:

Pos	Team	Pld	W	D	L	PF	PA	PD	TF	TA	TB	LB	Pts	Qualification
1	Taranaki (RS)	3	3	0	0	119	35	+84	18	5	2	0	14	Bunnings NPC quarter-finals
2	Hawke's Bay	3	3	0	0	117	57	+60	17	8	2	0	14
3	Canterbury	3	3	0	0	73	37	+36	11	6	1	0	13
4	Bay of Plenty	4	2	0	2	108	80	+28	14	11	2	1	11
5	Tasman	3	2	0	1	84	68	+16	12	10	2	0	10
6	Otago	3	2	0	1	91	83	+8	12	11	1	1	10
7	Southland	4	2	0	2	91	93	−2	11	12	1	1	10
8	Waikato	3	2	0	1	87	96	−9	13	13	2	0	10
9	Wellington	3	1	0	2	91	103	−12	13	15	2	1	7
10	Manawatu	3	1	0	2	77	103	−26	11	14	1	1	6
11	Northland	3	1	0	2	39	68	−29	5	9	0	0	4
12	Auckland	3	0	0	3	58	105	−47	8	16	1	2	3
13	Counties Manukau	3	0	0	3	62	120	−58	10	16	2	1	3
14	North Harbour	3	0	0	3	71	120	−49	10	19	1	0	1

Each team's cumulative points total is shown for every week of the regular season with the overall log position in brackets.

Team	W1	W2	W3	W4	W5	W6	W7	W8	W9	W10	QF	SF	Final
Auckland	2 (8th)	3 (11th)	3 (12th)
Bay of Plenty	5 (2nd)	10 (1st)	10 (4th)	11 (---)
Canterbury	5 (3rd)	9 (4th)	13 (3rd)
Counties Manukau	0 (14th)	1 (14th)	3 (13th)
Hawke's Bay	5 (1st)	9 (2nd)	14 (2nd)
Manawatu	5 (4th)	5 (9th)	6 (10th)
North Harbour	0 (10th)	1 (13th)	1 (14th)
Northland	0 (12th)	4 (10th)	4 (11th)
Otago	4 (7th)	5 (6th)	10 (6th)
Southland	0 (9th)	1 (12th)	6 (9th)	10 (---)
Taranaki	4 (6th)	9 (3rd)	14 (1st)
Tasman	0 (13th)	5 (7th)	10 (5th)
Waikato	5 (5th)	6 (5th)	10 (7th)
Wellington	0 (11th)	5 (8th)	7 (8th)
Key:	Win	Draw	Loss	No game	DNQ = did not qualify

During the regular season of the 2025 Bunnings NPC, each team plays 10 games over a period of ten weeks. The competition starts on 31 July 2025, when Auckland hosts Waikato. The first Ranfurly Shield defence of the season takes place on 2 August 2025, when Taranaki plays Northland.^[4][3]

	Quarter-finals					Semi-finals					Final
	1
	8
	4
	5
	2
	7
	3
	6

No.	Player	Team	Points	Average	Details
1	Josh Jacomb	Taranaki	49	16.33	4 T, 10 C, 3 P, 0 D
2	Harry Godfrey	Hawke's Bay	35	11.67	1 T, 12 C, 2 P, 0 D
	Kaleb Trask	Bay of Plenty	35	11.67	2 T, 8 C, 3 P, 0 D
4	Jackson Garden-Bachop	Wellington	31	10.33	1 T, 10 C, 2 P, 0 D
	Cam Millar	Otago	31	10.33	0 T, 11 C, 3 P, 0 D
6	William Havili	Tasman	29	9.67	1 T, 12 C, 0 P, 0 D
7	Brett Cameron	Manawatu	22	7.33	0 T, 8 C, 2 P, 0 D
8	Aaron Cruden	Waikato	20	6.67	1 T, 6 C, 1 P, 0 D
	Xavier Tito-Harris	Auckland	20	6.67	4 T, 0 C, 0 P, 0 D
10	10 players		15

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

No.	Player	Team	Tries	Average
1	Josh Jacomb	Taranaki	4	1.33
	Xavier Tito-Harris	Auckland	4	1.33
3	10 players		3

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

Team	1		2		3		4		5		6		7		8		9		10		Total		Average
Auckland	35	36	15	19	8	50															58	105	19.33	35.00
Bay of Plenty	37	7	39	22	7	21	25	30													108	80	27.00	20.00
Canterbury	33	15	19	15	21	7															73	37	24.33	12.33
Counties Manukau	14	54	22	39	26	27															62	120	20.67	40.00
Hawke's Bay	54	14	27	21	36	22															117	57	39.00	19.00
Manawatu	38	25	17	49	22	29															77	103	25.67	34.33
North Harbour	25	38	24	46	22	36															71	120	23.67	40.00
Northland	3	23	22	17	14	28															39	68	13.00	22.67
Otago	24	15	21	27	46	41															91	83	30.33	27.67
Southland	15	24	17	22	29	22	30	25													91	93	22.75	23.25
Taranaki	23	3	46	24	50	8															119	35	39.67	11.67
Tasman	7	37	49	17	28	14															84	68	28.00	22.67
Waikato	36	35	24	35	27	26															87	96	29.00	32.00
Wellington	15	33	35	24	41	46															91	103	30.33	34.33

Source: Bunnings NPC Fixtures and Results 2025^[4]

Team	1		2		3		4		5		6		7		8		9		10		Total		Average
Auckland	4	6	3	3	1	7															8	16	2.67	5.33
Bay of Plenty	5	1	5	4	1	33	3	3													14	11	3.50	2.75
Canterbury	5	2	3	3	3	1															11	6	3.67	2.00
Counties Manukau	2	8	4	5	4	3															10	16	3.33	5.33
Hawke's Bay	8	2	3	3	6	3															17	8	5.67	2.67
Manawatu	5	3	3	7	3	4															11	14	3.67	4.67
North Harbour	3	5	4	8	3	6															10	19	3.33	6.33
Northland	0	3	3	2	2	4															5	9	1.67	3.00
Otago	3	2	3	3	6	6															12	11	4.00	3.67
Southland	2	3	2	3	4	3	3	3													11	12	2.75	3.00
Taranaki	3	0	8	4	7	1															18	5	6.00	1.67
Tasman	1	5	7	3	4	2															12	10	4.00	3.33
Waikato	6	4	4	5	3	4															13	13	4.33	4.33
Wellington	2	5	5	4	6	6															13	15	4.33	5.00

For

Against

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

Player	Team	Red	Yellow	Sent off match(es)
Austin Anderson	Waikato	0	1	Week 1 (vs. Auckland)
Logan Crowley	Taranaki	0	1	Week 2 (vs. North Harbour)
Kurt Eklund	Bay of Plenty	0	1	Week 2 (vs. Counties Manukau)
Sam Gilbert	Otago	0	1	Week 1 (vs. Southland)
Oscar Koller	North Harbour	0	1	Week 2 (vs. Taranaki)
Jonah Lowe	Hawke's Bay	0	1	Week 1 (vs. Counties Manukau)
Josh Te Hira	Tasman	0	1	Week 1 (vs. Bay of Plenty)
Kaleb Trask	Bay of Plenty	0	1	Week 2 (vs. Counties Manukau)

On 3 March 2025, Taranaki Rugby announced that 2024 Lochore Cup winners King Country would be the first Heartland Championship team to challenge Taranaki for the Ranfurly Shield in 2025. The game would be played at the fully re-developed Stadium Taranaki (formerly Yarrow Stadium) on 11 June 2025.^[9] Three days later, Taranaki Rugby confirmed that the second pre-season Ranfurly Shield game would be played at Manaia Domain in Manaia on 19 July 2025 against 2024 Meads Cup winners Thames Valley.^[10]

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