The U85kg National Club Cup (NCC) is gearing up for its fourth instalment in 2023 with even more teams entered than 2022. 

Waikato clubs Melville, Morrinsville Sports, Hamilton Marist, Leamington & Fraser Tech will again feature in what is a tightly contested competition where every game has the mindset of 'winner takes all'. For the victor's they go another round, the losers are knocked out and come back next year. 

The U85kg National Club Cup is the country's only national club rugby competition, and from its first season in 2020 where only 19 teams competed, New Zealand Rugby now have 51 entries across 13 provincial unions and will challenge for the title starting May 6th. 

Hamilton Marist Head Coach Ryan Gulbransen is looking forward to his team’s involvement again and they have a "massive challenge drawing Auckland University DC's (last year’s runners-up) but the Debt Collectors are the standard and we get to challenge ourselves in that space so that's exciting".  Gulbransen acknowledged the "great support" his team had received from their club, and believes with the continued "support again, anything is possible". 

For the first time in 2023, two Heartland provincial union weight restricted teams have entered the competition - one of those been our neighbours the Thames Valley Sly Foxes, they have got lucky in the draw and advance to the second round, where hopefully they will face one of our clubs Melville. Melville, however, have to overcome their first challenge when they take on Waiheke Pirates in a round 1 match up. 

Other matches for our Waikato sides see Morrinsville Sports take on Ponsonby Pikeys in round one, while Leamington square off vs Waiuku in another round 1 clash. Fraser Tech got lucky on draw day and advanced directly to round 2 as they await the winner of Pukekohe Pirates & Auckland University Squids. Fraser Tech Coach Gary Mangino comments “our team is building nicely for the season and the boys are looking forward to our second-round cup playing outside of region”. Our last team is as mentioned above, Hamilton Marist play Auckland University wrap up our teams first matches.

Like previous years, the NCC is split into three regions (Northern, Central and Southern) in a knock-out format. Where the winning team will remain unbeaten after six matches and be crowned the 2023 U85kg National Club Cup Champions. 

Article added: Wednesday 12 April 2023