Taranaki claimed their first win in the 2015 ITM Cup this week as they beat Counties Manukau to get Week Four’s action underway and Talking Rugby Union previews the rest of the fixtures from this round as well as a look back at Week Three.

With Bay Of Plenty claiming their first win over Southland since 2011 earlier on today, here is Talking Rugby Union’s preview of the rest of the action in Week Three of the ITM Cup as well as a look back at Week Two.

We are now just two days away from the start of the 2015 ITM Cup and many of us are hoping for a repeat of the fairy tale year of 2014 in this season’s competition.

The ITM Cup 2014 is over, but it is interesting to take note of what ITM Cup form means for Super Rugby 2015?

The ITM Cup 2014 is over with the home teams and neighbouring provinces Manawatu and Taranaki taking out the ITM Cup Championship and Premiership titles respectively.

Nice cup of tea and armchair rugby courtesy of Sky Sports Rugby and Wolf Blass Wines. That was our morning start here in the UK offices of Talking Rugby Union. Rugby Union Fans have never had it so good!

If you were in New Zealand over the weekend you were witnessing some stunning 80-minute games of rugby - both in the Bledisloe Cup clash and the ITM Cup semi-finals.

The ITM Cup 2014 is here already, we have seen 14 teams in action over 69 matches. Interestingly in this competition, eight of the 14 teams make the semi-finals of either the Premiership or Championship.

We travel down to NZ with our local pundit and rugby tipster, Scott Donaldson. It was round 9 of New Zealand rugby's ITM Cup over the weekend.

This competition is getting great coverage in the UK and NZ courtesy of Sky Sports Rugby. It is great to see different levels of rugby union being shown live.

What a Mickey Mouse weekend of ITM Cup 2014 with the narrowest winning margin being a 24-10 win for Counties Manukau over Southland in the cold Invercargill. The average winning margin was 24 points, while Canterbury got thrashed at home by the Tasman Makos, while the Magpies showed that they are strong at home, but terrible on the road.

The seventh round of the ITM Cup was entertaining from the first to the last games which saw the top-dogs Canterbury lose to two struggling ITM Cup Championship sides North Harbour and Southland.

The sixth round of the ITM Cup saw some enormous margins of victories and defeat combined with a lack of upsets. Otago's win over Waikato was really the only one that went against the thoughts of most tipsters.

The fifth round of the ITM Cup started with a real bang last week as two shock results sent waves through both divisions of the competition.

No sooner has the last round finished the next one is already upon us. Rugby in the southern hemisphere is racing along as the fifth round of the ITM Cup is already poised ready to begin.

With the fourth round of the ITM Cup behind us, the competition is now in full swing as, once again, we find ourselves completely amerced in southern hemisphere rugby.

The fourth round of the ITM Cup starts on Wednesday with Championship sides Manawatu and Bay of Plenty playing each other. Both of these teams have a double round and so it is difficult to know how they will go out the other end of the round.

The third round of the 2014 ITM Cup saw the star-studded Hawke's Bay Magpies win the Ranfurly Shield off Counties Manukau Steelers – not bad for an ITM Cup Championship team! Three rounds is now long enough to get a gauge on the relative quality of teams…

The third round of the ITM Cup started on Wednesday with traditional farming foes and now Chiefs franchise partners Waikato hosting Taranaki.

The second round of the ITM Cup saw plenty of spectacular tries, with half the games being close and the other half ending with lopsided margins of victory in the end.