sport poverty bay rugby football union
England is a country that is part of the ___MASK37___ . It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west . The Irish Sea lies northwest of England and the Celtic Sea lies to the southwest . England is separated from continental Europe by the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south . The country covers five - eighths of the island of Great Britain ( which lies in the North Atlantic ) in its centre and south ; and includes over 100 smaller islands such as the Isles of Scilly , and the Isle of Wight . ___MASK70___ is a type of football developed at ___MASK70___ School in ___MASK70___ , Warwickshire , one of many versions of football played at English public schools in the 19th century . The two main types of ___MASK70___ are ___MASK47___ and ___MASK70___ union . Although ___MASK47___ initially used ___MASK70___ union rules , they are now wholly separate sports . The Mitre 10 Cup ( colloquially referred to as " National Provincial Championship " or " NPC ") is the highest level of New Zealand domestic ___MASK70___ union competition , contested annually from late August to early November and managed by the New Zealand ___MASK70___ Union ( NZRU ). Building on competitions dating back to the National Provincial Championship in 1976 , with teams from a number of provinces , the Mitre 10 Cup officially started with the 2006 season with 14 teams after the National Provincial Championship ( NPC ) was split into this professional competition and the amateur Heartland Championship competition . The competition was known as the Air New Zealand Cup to the end of the 2009 season ; the name then changed to the ITM Cup for the 2010 season after ITM , the trading name of Independent Timber Merchants Co - operative Ltd ., a New Zealand building supplies retailer took over as lead sponsor . In 2016 the New Zealand - owned home improvement and garden retailer , Mitre 10 took over sponsorship after out - bidding ITM . The Heartland Championship competition , known for sponsorship reasons as the Mitre 10 Heartland Championship , is a domestic ___MASK70___ union competition in New Zealand . It was founded in 2006 as one of two successor competitions to the country ' s former domestic competition , the National Provincial Championship ( NPC ). The country ' s 27 provincial teams were split into two separate competitions . Thirteen of the original teams , plus one merged side created from two other teams , entered the new top - level professional competition , the Air New Zealand Cup ( now known as the Mitre 10 Cup ). The remaining 12 sides entered the new Heartland Championship , whose teams contest two distinct trophies , both named after legendary New Zealand players : A team ___MASK63___ includes any ___MASK63___ which involves two or more players working together towards a shared objective . A team ___MASK63___ is an activity in which individuals are organized into opposing teams which compete to win . Examples are basketball , ___MASK3___ , water polo , handball , lacrosse , ___MASK8___ , baseball , and the various forms of football and hockey . A try is a way of scoring points in ___MASK70___ union and ___MASK47___ football . A try is scored by grounding the ball ( the ball must be touching the player when coming into contact with the ground ) in the opposition ' s in - goal area ( on or behind the goal line ). ___MASK70___ union and league differ slightly in defining ' grounding the ball ' and the ' in - goal ' area . ___MASK70___ union , or simply ___MASK70___ , is a contact team sport which originated in England in the first half of the 19th century . One of the two codes of ___MASK70___ football , it is based on running with the ball in hand . In its most common form , a game is between two teams of 15 players using an oval - shaped ball on a rectangular field with H - shaped goalposts on each try line . The Poverty Bay ___MASK70___ Football Union is the governing body for ___MASK70___ union within the Gisborne district , in the area surrounding Poverty Bay on the east coast of the North Island of New Zealand . The men ' s representative team play from ___MASK70___ Park , Gisborne , and currently compete in the Heartland Championship . The National Provincial Championship , or NPC , was the major domestic ___MASK70___ competition in New Zealand . The NPC saw many alterations to its format and brand . Since 2006 , it has been replaced by two competitions , the ITM Cup ( originally the Air New Zealand Cup ) and the Heartland Championship . From the 2011 Season , the top Division was split into two tiers based on the 2010 Table after Pool Play . Teams 1  7 were assigned to the Premiership and teams 8  14 to the Championship . There is automatic Promotion / Relegation between the two tiers and also " crossover " matches , as well as full Round Robin Matches within each tier . The Heartland Championship is also split into two tiers after pool play with the top tier playing for the Meads Cup and bottom tier playing for the Lochore Cup . Currently all 26 of New Zealand ' s Provincial Unions participate in either the Air New Zealand Cup or Heartland Championship . The NPC was first contested in 1976 , and although the basic format of Division One was much the same from then until the 2006 reorganisation , there were a number of changes to the lower divisions .