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The ITM Cup is New Zealand's annual professional domestic Rugby union competition, taking place from late July through October (or the first week of November). It was founded in 2006 with 14 teams, after the NPC was split into two separate competitions. The other 12 provincial teams from the NPC now compete in the amateur Heartland Championship. From its inception through the 2009 season, it was sponsored by Air New Zealand, the national airline and flag carrier of New Zealand, and called the Air New Zealand Cup. New Zealand also has five teams in Super Rugby, an elite competition which also involves sides from Australia and South Africa.
In March 2010 it was announced that the Air New Zealand Cup would be renamed the ITM Cup with the addition of building suppliescooperative ITM (Independent Timber Merchants) as the major sponsor. The change came because Air New Zealand chose to concentrate their rugby sponsorship on the country's national team, the All Blacks
The 2011 ITM Cup is the 35th provincial rugby union competition in New Zealand, the sixth since the competition reconstruction in 2006 and the second under the new sponsor of ITM (Independent Timber Merchants).
The new competition format from 2011 will see 14 teams split into two divisions of seven teams based on their on-field finishing positions in 2010. The top seven teams will form the Premiership and the bottom seven the Championship. Teams will play all other teams in their division plus four teams from the other division (there will be an innovative new process for teams to select their cross-division opponents with the detail to be finalised in the first quarter of 2011). All matches will carry full competition points. Due to the ITM Cup season running up against the 2011 Rugby World Cup, to be held in September and October in New Zealand, the competition window will be truncated. Three midweek matches will be held during the regular season, and there will be no semi-finals; the top two teams in both the Championship and Premiership will advance directly to their respective finals. Semi-finals will return to both competitions in 2012.[1]
The winner of the Championship will receive automatic promotion to the Premiership replacing the 7th placed team in the Premiership which will be relegated to the Championship.
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