2025 Bunnings NPC

The 2025 Bunnings NPC season was the twentieth season of New Zealand's provincial rugby union competition, the National Provincial Championship, since it turned professional in 2006. It involved 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 hosted. The final took place on 25 October 2025, and saw beat 36–28.

Format

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.
All provincial teams play ten games during the regular season : 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. The ten round robin games in 2025 are played over a period of ten weeks ; this period is one week longer than previous seasons because the competition schedule no longer includes a mid-week game.
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.
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.
The quarter-finals are played as follows, with the highest ranked team hosting:
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.
The rules governing the Ranfurly Shield state that every home game during the regular season played by the union that holds the Ranfurly Shield is a mandatory challenge match. No challenge matches will be played after the regular season has ended. 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.

Standings

Standings progression

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

Regular season

During the regular season of the 2025 Bunnings NPC, each team played 10 games over a period of ten weeks. The competition started on 31 July 2025, when narrowly lost 35–36 to in Auckland. The first Ranfurly Shield defence of the season took place on 2 August 2025, when beat 23–3 in New Plymouth.

Week 8

Statistics

Leading point scorers

Source: The weekly reviews of the matches published on .

Leading try scorers

Source: The weekly reviews of the matches published on .

Points by game

Source: Bunnings NPC Fixtures and Results 2025

Tries by game

For

Against

Source: The weekly reviews of the matches published on .

Ranfurly Shield

Pre-season challenges

On 3 March 2025, Taranaki Rugby announced that 2024 Lochore Cup winners would be the first Heartland Championship team to challenge for the Ranfurly Shield in 2025. The game would be played at the fully re-developed Stadium Taranaki on 11 June 2025. 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.
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