Australian Provincial Championship

Australian Provincial Championship (APC)

Sport	Rugby union
Founded	2006
Inaugural season	2006
No. of teams	4
Country(ies)	Australia
Continent	Oceania
Ceased	2006
Last champion(s)	Brumbies (1st title)
Most titles	Brumbies (1 title)
Related competitions	Australian Rugby Championship (defunct) Australian Rugby Shield Super Rugby

The Australian Provincial Championship, often abbreviated to the APC, is a now defunct Australian national Rugby union tournament that commenced for just one season in 2006. Each team plays every team twice throughout the six week round robin tournament.

Overview

There had previously been no national rugby union club competition in Australia because of a lack of player depth outside of the rugby strongholds of Sydney, Canberra and Brisbane, where there are strong local competitions. In order to expose fringe state players to a high level of rugby, the state teams New South Wales Waratahs, the Brumbies and Queensland Reds, have previously played for the Ricoh National Championship at the completion of the Super 12.

Before the professional rugby era, the NSW Waratahs and Queensland Reds played annually in a competition known as the State of the Union, a name which is still commonly used to refer to Australian interstate games. This was expanded and renamed the Ricoh National Championship in 1998 to accommodate the ACT Brumbies. This competition also ran in 1999 and 2000.

In 2006, a Western Australian team Western Force, joined New South Wales, Queensland and ACT for the Australian Provincial Championship at the completion of the Super 14, the winner of which was awarded the Bob Templeton trophy. It was suggested that in 2007 or 2008 some Japanese teams could play this competition, however the competition was discontinued beyond 2006 due to the new Australian Rugby Championship. Additionally, the Australian Rugby Shield is a national competition featuring teams from outside the traditional rugby areas.

Format

The points system used for the APC was the same as the one that is used for the Super 14; with bonus points being awarded to teams who score four tries or more in one match and/or lose by seven points or less. The standard system is four points for a win, two for a draw and zero for a loss (depending on bonus points).

The four teams will be as strong as possible, but will be without their respective Wallabies, due to the South African leg of the 2006 Tri Nations Series. The Western Force ended up having all-away fixtures, whilst the Brumbies will be playing all their games on Friday nights, the Waratahs will take games to Gosford and Bathurst, whilst the Reds will kick off in the afternoon at Ballymore.^[1]

2006 tournament

Main article: 2006 Australian Provincial Championship

See also

• Australia national rugby union team
• Australian Rugby Championship (ARC) (defunct)
• Australian Rugby Shield (ARS)
• Super Rugby

References

1. ^ "2006 APC (Australian Provincial Championship)". nswrugby.com.au. Archived from the original on 18 July 2006. http://web.archive.org/web/20060718003906/http://www.nswrugby.com.au/DrawsandCompetitions/APC/AustralianProvincialChampionship.aspx. Retrieved 10 August 2006. 

External links

• Australian Provincial Championship on Rugby.com.au
• Queensland Rugby Union
• QLD Rugby FAQs
• NSW Rugby
• ACT and Southern NSW Rugby Union
• Victorian Rugby Union
• RugbyWA