Rugby: Get behind the ITM Cup

Nehe Milner-Skudder makes a break for Manawatu in last year's ITM Cup.
Nehe Milner-Skudder makes a break for Manawatu in last year's ITM Cup.

ODT Online rugby writer Jeff Cheshire provides some reasons to support the ITM Cup.

The best of the locals  

Depending on how you look at it, the fact that the ITM Cup is made up of the best of the local players from a province is either one of the best or worst things about the competition 

The naysayers will argue that the competition lacks quality at the top end and that they are now being forced to pay to watch the same players they have been watching all winter. To the other group, that is where a lot of the interest lies. How do the best players in Otago compare to the best in other regions? Can these players adapt to playing at higher level?

Of course there are some unions that have deeper pockets than others. But there really is something more enjoyable about seeing the players that you watch all winter in club rugby representing your province, as opposed to a bunch you do not identify with.

Picking the talent

Every year there are a number of players who come through and stand out in the ITM Cup and often they are not players who have been widely heard of outstide of their own province.

Think of players such as Nehe Milner-Skudder, James Lowe, Otere Black and Waisake Naholo - all of whom have made a name for themselves in the provincial competition in recent years. Now they have proven themselves as key players at a higher level.

The challenge for fans comes in picking which of those talents will go on to excel at the next level and which are simply good provincial players. That is not always easy to do, but it is pretty cool seeing those players at the top level and remembering when you first identified them as a player to watch.

See how the schoolboy stars go

With such great coverage of First XV rugby on television, it is now possible to pick out those talented players from an even earlier age, or at least follow the schoolboy stars. What can then be interesting is seeing how they will translate to playing against grown men.

For many, they are in a situation where they cannot get away with a whole host of things for the first time in their lives. Some make the transition well, others do not.

Further to that, it can be interesting to see how the players who have played in the local schoolboy competitions go, or for those of us in the right age-group, the ones we had the opportunity to play with and against. After they have had a year or two at this level, you really do get a better idea of where their long-term prospects are at.

The Ranfurly Shield

As great as provincial rugby is to follow, the format of the competition in recent years really has been flawed. Most notably quite often multiple teams in the Championship are better than multiple teams in the Premiership and it is plain for everyone to see as they are playing each other.

You do not have that problem with the Ranfurly Shield and it is something that the masses still get behind.

A few years back, provincial rugby really seemed to fall away, but it was the Ranfurly Shield which kept it relevant and has helped in the resurgence we have seen more recently. Whatever you think of provincial rugby nowadays, you cannot deny that the Shield still invokes passion in fans and if it is being challenged for, it will be the biggest game of the weekend.

Still great rugby to watch

Many bemoan the fact that the ITM Cup has become largely a development competition. Indeed it is a shame it is not the golden-standard of provincial rugby it once was. But sometimes that fall-off is overstated. 

The reality is that it is only 30 or so players that are missing and the teams that are most heavily affected are generally still dominant. There is plenty of great rugby on show and, while it is not at the level it used to be, it is still a level higher than the majority of overseas competitions.

Sometimes we take for granted just how much good rugby we are exposed to in New Zealand and it can be easy to write off a competition such as the ITM Cup. But in reality you still have a ton of Super Rugby players, a handful of ex-All Blacks and a lot of others who could be playing as full-time professionals overseas.

So make the most of it, fans in smaller rugby nations would love to have such a good competition so easily accessible to them.

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