The National Provincial Rugby Championship gets underway tonight with more than just the title up for grabs at the end of the season.
This is the last year of 14 teams in the top competition... next year it'll split into a top 7 Premiership and a bottom 7 Championship, based on the final standings from this season.
Canterbury have won the last two titles and coach Rob Penney says the pending change in format doesn't change their attitude at all... the expectation in the province is that they must win.
Penney does believe the split will help the game with higher quality games week in and week out.
Canterbury play Hawke's Bay first up tomorrow night, while tonight Taranaki host Northland.
