Tasman well satisfied with home draw for 2017

The Tasman Rugby Union is eyeing up a "fantastic" home draw after next season's provincial crossover matches were confirmed this week by New Zealand Rugby.

Tasman will host North Harbour, Canterbury, Auckland, Wellington and Southland in next season's Mitre 10 Cup provincial rugby competition, much to the delight of Tasman chief executive Tony Lewis.

"If you're looking at it commercially, we're going to have Canterbury, Auckland and Wellington at home and we've also got Southland at home which is always a good draw-card, and North Harbour," Lewis said.

"So from a commercial point of view it's fantastic, but when you're on the dance floor in the top division, there's not many easy games in our draw next year.

"If you look at our draw and compare the draws over the last three or four years, it's a good one."

Tasman's cross-over matches will be against championship teams Otago, Manawatu, Southland and Wellington, complemented by their mandatory six premiership matches against newly-promoted North Harbour, Auckland, Counties Manukau, Waikato, Taranaki and Canterbury.

Tasman selected both Otago and Southland as their first and third round picks respectively, while championship teams Manawatu and Wellington each selected Tasman as their picks. Tasman will play Southland and Wellington at home but are away to Manawau and Otago.

The official draw and venues are still to be determined.

Tasman lost to Canterbury in this year's premiership final, with North Harbour replacing Hawkes Bay in next year's premiership.