The National Provincial Championship, or NPC, was the predecessor to the current Air New Zealand Cup and Heartland Championship in New Zealand rugby. 2004 was the 29th year of the National Provincial Championship, Canterbury were the winners of Division 1, Nelson Bays were the winners of Division 2, while Poverty Bay were the winners of Division 3.

Standings

Division 1 Standings

2004 Air New Zealand National Provincial Championship First Division
Pos	Team	Pld	W	D	L	PF	PA	PD	TF	TA	TB	LB	Pts
1	Wellington	9	7	1	1	313	154	+159	38	17	4	1	35
2	Canterbury	9	6	1	2	346	207	+139	40	25	4	2	32
3	Bay of Plenty	9	7	0	2	241	221	+20	25	25	3	1	32
4	Waikato	9	6	0	3	294	215	+79	37	22	5	1	30
5	Taranaki	9	6	0	3	332	257	+75	43	31	4	1	29
6	North Harbour	9	4	1	4	246	200	+46	28	23	5	4	27
7	Auckland	9	4	0	5	265	287	-22	34	34	5	3	24
8	Otago	9	2	1	6	183	261	-78	17	31	1	1	12
9	Southland	9	1	0	8	174	338	-164	21	40	1	0	5
10	Northland	9	0	0	9	182	436	-254	21	56	0	1	1

Division 2 Standings

2004 Air New Zealand National Provincial Championship Second Division
Pos	Team	Pld	W	D	L	PF	PA	PD	TF	TA	TB	LB	Pts
1	Nelson Bays	8	7	1	0	270	145	+125	37	15	6	0	36
2	Hawke's Bay	8	7	0	1	383	127	+256	56	12	6	1	35
3	Counties Manukau	8	6	1	1	301	215	+86	39	28	5	0	31
4	North Otago	8	5	0	3	335	245	+90	45	33	5	1	26
5	Marlborough	8	3	0	5	206	233	-27	22	32	2	1	15
6	Manawatu	8	3	0	5	187	219	-32	24	32	2	0	14
7	Wanganui	8	3	0	5	193	227	-34	27	29	4	1	12*
8	East Coast	8	1	0	7	183	209	-26	24	26	1	3	7*
9	Thames Valley	8	0	0	8	72	510	-438	9	72	0	0	0

• = Wanganui lost five points and East Coast lost one bonus point for player eligibility breaches i.e. the points gained in the match of the breach.

Division 3 Standings

2004 Air New Zealand National Provincial Championship Third Division
Pos	Team	Pld	W	D	L	PF	PA	PD	TF	TA	TB	LB	Pts
1	Poverty Bay	7	5	0	2	227	119	+108	30	14	5	2	27
2	Wairarapa Bush	7	5	1	1	176	120	+56	24	14	4	0	26
3	Mid Canterbury	7	5	0	2	185	126	+59	22	18	2	1	23
4	Horowhenua-Kapiti	7	4	1	2	209	171	+38	31	23	4	0	22
5	King Country	7	3	1	3	161	144	+17	20	18	1	1	16
6	South Canterbury	7	2	1	4	119	150	-31	15	19	1	1	12
7	West Coast	7	2	0	5	130	267	-137	18	37	2	0	10
8	Buller	7	0	0	7	92	202	-110	10	27	0	3	3

2004 results

Division One

Week 1

	13 August 2004	Wellington	34 – 27	Canterbury

	14 August 2004	Otago	40 – 24	Northland

	14 August 2004	Taranaki	33 – 29	North Harbour

	14 August 2004	Waikato	52 – 23	Southland

	15 August 2004	Auckland (RS)	28 – 33	Bay of Plenty

Week 2

	20 August 2004	Southland	16 – 48	Taranaki

	21 August 2004	Canterbury	43 – 43	North Harbour

	21 August 2004	Northland	29 – 37	Auckland

	21 August 2004	Otago	16 – 16	Wellington

	22 August 2004	Bay of Plenty (RS)	26 – 20	Waikato

Week 3

	27 August 2004	Canterbury	42 – 7	Otago

	28 August 2004	Waikato	59 – 11	Auckland

	28 August 2004	Southland	54 – 26	Northland

	28 August 2004	Taranaki	58 – 14	Bay of Plenty

	29 August 2004	North Harbour	16 – 18	Wellington

Week 4

	3 September 2004	Wellington	37 – 17	Waikato

	4 September 2004	Auckland	32 – 34	North Harbour

	4 September 2004	Otago	27 – 10	Southland

	4 September 2004	Northland	11 – 62	Taranaki

	5 September 2004	Bay of Plenty (RS)	26 – 33	Canterbury

Week 5

	10 September 2004	North Harbour	35 – 16	Southland

	11 September 2004	Bay of Plenty	44 – 16	Otago

	11 September 2004	Waikato	41 – 21	Northland

	11 September 2004	Wellington	27 – 21	Auckland

	12 September 2004	Taranaki	30 – 23	Canterbury

Week 6

	17 September 2004	Otago	27 – 39	Waikato

	18 September 2004	Bay of Plenty	17 – 13	Wellington

	18 September 2004	Auckland	51 – 22	Taranaki

	18 September 2004	Canterbury (RS)	52 – 13	Southland

	19 September 2004	Northland	16 – 40	North Harbour

Week 7

	24 September 2004	Waikato	15 – 30	Canterbury

	25 September 2004	Northland	24 – 29	Bay of Plenty

	25 September 2004	Wellington	73 – 28	Taranaki

	25 September 2004	North Harbour	20 – 3	Otago

	26 September 2004	Southland	22 – 30	Auckland

Week 8

	1 October 2004	Taranaki	31 – 14	Otago

	2 October 2004	Wellington	65 – 12	Northland

	2 October 2004	Bay of Plenty	38 – 20	Southland

	2 October 2004	Auckland	20 – 28	Canterbury

	3 October 2004	Waikato	25 – 20	North Harbour

Week 9

	8 October 2004	Auckland	35 – 33	Otago

	9 October 2004	Taranaki	20 – 26	Waikato

	9 October 2004	Canterbury (RS)	68 – 19	Northland

	9 October 2004	Southland	0 – 30	Wellington

	10 October 2004	North Harbour	9 – 14	Bay of Plenty

Semi-finals

	15 October 2004	Wellington	28 – 16	Waikato

	16 October 2004	Canterbury	44 – 12	Bay of Plenty

2004 Division One Grand Final

	23 October 2004	Wellington	27 – 40	Canterbury

Ranfurly Shield

As the holders of the Ranfurly Shield from the end of 2003, Auckland were the Ranfurly Shield holders in 2004 and started with its first defence against Poverty Bay in Auckland. Auckland won this match and defended it successfully once and lost its third defence of the season to Bay of Plenty. With the unions first ever Ranfurly Shield win, Bay of Plenty won its first ever defence of the shield before losing it to Canterbury who successfully defeated its following challengers to keep the shield for the summer of 2004 and into the 2005 season.

Auckland (15th Ranfurly Shield reign)

• July 28, 2004 - Auckland v Poverty Bay (won 116-3)
• August 1, 2004 - Auckland v Counties Manukau (won 100-15)
• August 15, 2004 - Auckland v Bay of Plenty (lost 28-33)

Bay of Plenty (1st Ranfurly Shield reign)

• August 22, 2004 - Bay of Plenty v Waikato (won 26-20)
• September 5, 2004 - Bay of Plenty v Canterbury (lost 26-33)

Canterbury (11th Ranfurly Shield reign)

• September 18, 2004 - Canterbury v Southland (won 52-13)
• October 9, 2004 - Canterbury v Northland (won 68-19)

References

• thesilverfern.co.nz( Archived 2009-08-08 at the Wayback Machine 2009-08-01)
• The 2005 New Zealand Rugby Almanack, Edited by Clive Akers and Geoff Miller