ITM Cup 2012 Tipping Competition and Discussion

[Somerset]

Starts in just over a week so probably a good time to get the topic up. Similar to last year with a lot of midweek matches in a relatively short season (finals are played at the end of October). Regarding the tipping competition, I'll combine it with the one I'm running on Cricsim to boost the numbers of tippers.

One point per correct tip. The highest scoring tipper(s) per round get an extra .1 to try and break ties at the end of the season. Two points for semi-final tips and three for finals.

Round one fixtures:
23/8 Hawkes Bay vs Auckland
24/8 Manawatu vs Wellington
24/8 Tasman vs Canterbury
25/8 BOP vs Taranaki
25/8 Otago vs Northland
26/8 North Harbour vs Waikato
26/8 Counties Manukau vs Southland

 

[Hurricane]

In with a post on the first page...

 

[BackFootPunch]

In

 

[Hurricane]

what team(s) do you support bfp?

 

[BackFootPunch]

Canterbury, but have a random soft spot for Manawatu. Also played cricket with a couple of the blokes in the Otago team so will be hoping they go well.

 

[ripper868]

Round one fixtures:
23/8 Hawkes Bay vs Auckland
24/8 Manawatu vs Wellington
24/8 Tasman vs Canterbury
25/8 BOP vs Taranaki
25/8 Otago vs Northland
26/8 North Harbour vs Waikato
26/8 Counties Manukau vs Southland

Not likely to see any matches but happy to be the blind placebo tipper...if you fall behind me you might as well give up.

 

[Hurricane]

@Ripper and BFP - do you jokers want Heartland games included or excluded or do you not care?
Somerset wants us to decide and tell him.

 

[ripper868]

Not fussed - I wont be seeing any of the games and tipping blind...Poverty Bay for the title though.

 

[BackFootPunch]

Happy to have the Heartland stuff in there.

 

[HeathDavisSpeed]

Happy to have the Heartland stuff in there.

Well said. Go the Rams!

 

[BackFootPunch]

Nah mate, North Otago got it sorted this year.

 

[HeathDavisSpeed]

Nah mate, North Otago got it sorted this year.

Well, there's a good chance, as always. KC put away Wanganui in pre-season, so hopefully we'll have a more open Heartlands this year.

 

[BackFootPunch]

An open competition would definitely be good. What do you think of the current incarnation of the NPC?

It seems a bit silly to me that we have four champion teams. Should just have a first division and second division tbh.

 

[HeathDavisSpeed]

An open competition would definitely be good. What do you think of the current incarnation of the NPC?

It seems a bit silly to me that we have four champion teams. Should just have a first division and second division tbh.

Heartlands has been a massive success tbh. Cheap for the teams to run when they have no income. Heartlands works, and I try and go to a couple of games a year and watch the Mainfreight Rugby highlights too. Always good to hear that local commentator at the Poverty Bay games.

I definitely preferred the single division for the Air NZ Cup setup. Every team up there should play every other, else we miss out on the opportunity for the Tasmans to get up over Waikato, Auckland, Wellington or Canterbury - which is what the neutrals want to see.

Still love it though - can't get enough of the NPC.

 

[Somerset]

I think we'll include Heartland matches, as theres only been a couple of tipsters (sorry, Hurricane) that have expressed that they'd prefer not to. So the Heartland will count as a separate round from ITM Cup matches despite the games occuring over the same weekend. In other words, if you tip a perfect 7/7 in ITM Cup, and a perfect 7/7 in Heartland Championship, you'd score 14.2 rather than 14.1. Hope that makes sense.

Also, as for the rounds with only two midweek matches, I think a 0.05 bonus rather than a 0.1 bonus is the way to go.

I'll put up Heartland fixtures tomorrow.

 

[Somerset]

Well, there's a good chance, as always. KC put away Wanganui in pre-season, so hopefully we'll have a more open Heartlands this year.

Interesting pre-season result. Wouldn't mind a non-Wanganui/North Otago winner this year given the dominance of those two unions over the past few years.

 

[Somerset]

Heartlands has been a massive success tbh. Cheap for the teams to run when they have no income. Heartlands works, and I try and go to a couple of games a year and watch the Mainfreight Rugby highlights too. Always good to hear that local commentator at the Poverty Bay games.

I definitely preferred the single division for the Air NZ Cup setup. Every team up there should play every other, else we miss out on the opportunity for the Tasmans to get up over Waikato, Auckland, Wellington or Canterbury - which is what the neutrals want to see.

Still love it though - can't get enough of the NPC.

Tend to echo these views (besides attending Heartland fixtures). I'd still prefer each team to face each other in the ITM Cup but can understand the difficulties of doing so with the expanded Super Rugby competition leaving such a small window before the summer. Either way, I'll probably watch just as much ITM Cup as I did Super Rugby, despite there being about half the number of matches in a third of the timeframe.

 

[Somerset]

Reminder that the ITM Cup kicks off this Thursday, with the Heatland Championship beginning on Saturday. Ripper is the only one from CW to tip his ITM Cup fixtures, although theres a number of tipsters over at Cricsim already involved.

ITM Cup round one fixtures:
23/8 Hawkes Bay vs Auckland
24/8 Manawatu vs Wellington
24/8 Tasman vs Canterbury
25/8 BOP vs Taranaki
25/8 Otago vs Northland
26/8 North Harbour vs Waikato
26/8 Counties Manukau vs Southland

Heartland Championship round one fixtures:
Mid Canterbury vs Wanganui
Horowhenua Kapiti vs Poverty Bay
Buller vs Thames Valley
East Coast vs West Coast
King Country vs North Otago
Wairarapa Bush vs South Canterbury

 

[Somerset]

To make the Heartland Championship tipping a little easier (at least, perhaps), last year's standings were:
Wanganui 35 (Meads Cup winner)
North Otago 35
East Coast 27 (Meads Cup runner-up)
Mid Canterbury 26

Buller 26
South Canterbury 22 (Lochore Cup runner-up)
Thames Valley 21
Poverty Bay 19 (Lochore Cup winner)

West Coast 13
Wairarapa Bush 8
King Country 5
Horowhenua Kapiti 5

 

[HeathDavisSpeed]

The first week is always the toughest.

ITM Cup round one fixtures:
23/8 Hawkes Bay vs Auckland
24/8 Manawatu vs Wellington
24/8 Tasman vs Canterbury
25/8 BOP vs Taranaki
25/8 Otago vs Northland
26/8 North Harbour vs Waikato
26/8 Counties Manukau vs Southland

Heartland Championship round one fixtures:
Mid Canterbury vs Wanganui
Horowhenua Kapiti vs Poverty Bay
Buller vs Thames Valley
East Coast vs West Coast
King Country vs North Otago
Wairarapa Bush vs South Canterbury

Some interesting Heartlands games in there. Looking to see Tanner Vili smash some North Otago heads - though preferably without the head-high tackles! Go Tanner!