Farah Palmer Cup

That's great news.

And also just on that theme, Super Rugby, Opiki and the FPC, are they to receive any other form of update to their plan or system? Will the systems go with that or are there changes potentially on those horizons, Mike?

Look, as we identified...

Two or three months ago, we're looking at all our competitions and tournaments, and we've got this Rugby Summit series to have a look at how we are financially set up and sustainable.

Already spoken about the Heartland Championship and how awesome that was.

The Farah Palmer Cup was... an absolute cracker as well, even though Canterbury just ran away with that one.

I think this NPC has given us so much fun, and it just seems to me that so many people are back in on the NPC.

The tried and true has been there all along, and they'll tell you the NPC's actually been pretty darn good for around about three, four years, and it's always been there, but now it's just... seems to have just re-engaged with another section of rugby society, and that's great.

And that's where you can... cover off that ground in terms of player workloads, availabilities, things that under the license, the terms of the license, maybe have to pay a certain chunk of the TV money they might generate to New Zealand rugby.

So the money that's generated by the All Blacks, the top level of the game, almost bypasses Super Rugby and goes into NPC, Heartland, Farah Palmer Cup, Club Rugby.

It's just an idea.

I'll chuck it into the mix.

harisports.co.nz Now let's kōrero.

Kia ora, good evening and welcome to the Hari Hui episode 203 and also our last Hari Hui for the year 2026 and what a successful year it has been for a lot of rugby and other sports across the Wellington region, across New Zealand and in particular It was a joy to follow the Wellington Pride, the Wellington women's rugby team, in the Farah Palmer Cup Championship this season.

They went on to win the championship final and get back into the Farah Palmer Cup Premiership for 2027.

And someone who has been a Wellington Pride player in the past is a legend of women's rugby in Wellington.

one of the assistant coaches of the successful Wellington Pride team for season 2026.

Amanda Rasch is our guest on the Harihui.

Amanda, many thanks for coming on and well done two weeks ago on the Farrah Palmer Cup championship win.

It's a long time since the Pride were last in the premiership.

I mean, you think about the Warriors going to Christchurch, playing under the roof.

You think about the crowds for NPC, FPC.

It's all happening and it's wonderful.

And I must admit, rather sheepishly, I've still not attended an event at One New Zealand Stadium.

You're with Sport Nation, Scotty and Sammy this morning, Brad and Beta running the show for us.

Time to talk a bit of rugby union, but a slightly different topic.

We've had plenty of coaches and players on the show throughout the season, whether it's clubs, super rugby, NPC, FPC, but we wanted to figure out what it is actually like to run the programme.

To be the manager, to be the man in charge, and it is a great pleasure to welcome to the show the one and only Brad Tehata out of the Taniwha.

I mean, absolute weapon.

And Manawatu doing that and the women doing it too in the Farah Palmer Cup to win the JJ Stewart.

I don't know if many of our listeners know that the JJ Stewart is the Renfrewley Shield for women's rugby.

So what an incredible week for Manawatu Rugby that was as well.