What a start to the 2008 Air New Zealand Cup!

Seven hard fought games, and three (yes, three) upset victory's.

Thursday night saw Tasman go down to Bay of Plenty 7-8 in some pretty atrocious conditions, thanks to the flooding New Zealand has been experiencing as of late.

The other Thursday night game saw Northland pick up an 18-10 win over Waikato, in similar conditions to the Tasman - BOP game. Northland have always struggled to beat the top sides in the competition, and beating Waikato is a fantastic start to their 2008 campaign.

On Friday night, Wellington and Taranaki got the cash over Hawkes Bay and North Harbour respectively.

Wellington ran away with the game, outscoring the Magpies 30-6 - and in doing so jump to the top of the competition ladder.

Taranaki beat North Harbour 20-13 in New Plymouth.

Two great results for the Hurricanes region!

Saturday saw Otago clash with Southland in the southern derby. Otago picked up a 25-23 victory, with a penalty in the dying minutes.

The biggest news from Saturday (other than the All Blacks, of course) was the massive 25-24 upset win for Manawatu over the highly favoured Canterbury side. Canterbury had a good chance to win the game with a penalty on fulltime, but it wasn't to be - and Manawatu scored their biggest win in a long (oh, so long) time.

Well done lads.

The final game of the first round saw another local derby, as Auckland took on the Counties-Manukau Steelers. Auckland were odds-on favourites to win, and it's no surprise seeing that Counties didn't win at all last year.

But this was the round of upsets, and Counties got in on the action by outscoring Auckland 17-6.

Next year the competition is getting cut by two sides, and possibly up to four sides could get the chop. But with the way things have started this season, we think the NZRU would be stupid to trim the Air New Zealand Cup down.

New Zealand rugby needs these sides playing - it keeps our player depth healthy, and in the end, that's what matters.

Just ask the All Blacks.