A new domestic rugby competition structure in New Zealand, featuring a 10-team premier division, a six-team division one and a 10-team Heartland competition, will be launched next year.

New Zealand Rugby Union chief executive Steve Tew said on Wednesday the main features of the new competitions included automatic promotion-relegation between the premier division and division one, a common window for domestic competitions allowing for the involvement of Super rugby players and a single national finals day across all three competitions.

Further consideration would also be given to promotion-relegation between the new division one competition and the Heartland competition.

NZRU chairman Jock Hobbs said the changes were important to resolving the sustainability issues and uncertainty which had hampered the success of the domestic Air New Zealand Cup.

"We had a very clear message from our provincial unions earlier this year that change was necessary and that we needed to act quickly and decisively," Hobbs said.

"With the support and involvement of our provincial unions, we have done that, and believe this structure is one which meets the competition principles which New Zealand's rugby collective decided were important."

A "solvency test and assessable criteria", as agreed to by participating Air NZ Cup provincial unions, would be used to determine the 10 unions who will participate in the premier division in 2010, with the remaining four unions from the present top flight playing in division one in 2010.

This will include 2009 on and off-field results with the assessment taking place after the conclusion of this year's Air NZ Cup on November 20.

"There is a real incentive for provincial unions to perform both on and off the field in 2009 as these results will be part of the assessment criteria," Tew said.

"Similarly, for those provinces that do play in division one in 2010, there is a pathway back via promotion-relegation."

Brought to you by AAP © 2024 AAP