Busy but satisfying day for NRU

Just a day after the big wigs at New Zealand Rugby Union headquarters began examining the status of Northland rugby, the phone lines at the provincial headquarters started running hot.
Not just with calls from concerned Northland rugby pundits either.
First Northland rugby coach Bruce Hodder was contacted by his Blues Super 12 rugby counterpart Peter Sloane looking for a halfback, and in particular Northland halfback John Senio.
Blues squad replacement Ben Meyer has been eliminated from Friday's Super 12 match against the Hurricanes and with original squad choice David Gibson unavailable for weeks with neck problems and Steve Devine damaging his shoulder in last weekend's loss to the Bulls, Sloane was keen to secure Senio's services.
So the Marist and Northland halfback, who is set to trial for the Manu Samoa team later this month, attended Blues training yesterday to be named on the bench for tomorrow night's game.
Shortly after Sloane's problems were sorted though, the Tongan Rugby Union phoned with another proposition: They wanted a game against Northland as a final dress rehearsal for their impending Pacific tri-series tournament starting next month.
So in the space of a few hours Northland had been asked to defend their status as a first division province, beseeched to supply a player suitable of playing a crunch Super 12 rugby match and solicited to host an international rugby team.
It all added to a busy, but ultimately satisfying, day at NRU headquarters.
NRU chief executive Tim Hamilton said the request from the Tongan rugby team had been welcomed as an ideal addition to the pre-season representative programme, while Senio's call-up was just a bonus.
"Getting Tonga to come up here is a good opportunity to host an international team who will be building for their tri-series.
"Given the disappointment of missing out on a Lions game it is a chance to give our Northland rugby supporters another top quality game," Hamilton said.
"It gives us a very good lead in to the Air New Zealand NPC."
Senio, while pleasantly surprised to get a call from the Blues, was ruing his luck as he tweaked his shoulder playing in a club match on Saturday and was unable to take full part in the Blues training yesterday.
That saw him selected to start from the bench tomorrow night.
"It is not the best piece of timing I have ever had. I know when I will be right. I will be right on Friday night. I wasn't quite right for training though," Senio said.
If he stays with the Blues team for the rest of the campaign, an unlikely scenario, Senio will miss Northland's first trial game as well. But it might help his case for possible Manu Samoa selection later this month.
Northland plays Poverty Bay on Wednesday, May 18, and Senio has Manu Samoa trials on in Auckland a week after.
But even those trials arrive at an inopportune time for Senio, who is about to sit his final exams to complete a theology degree.
The Manu Samoa trials will be held in the middle of intensive study and the Pacific Tri-series games clash with his exams.
Meanwhile, a Northland rugby squad trained in Whangarei last night and a playing squad of 22 will be named next week to prepare for the game against Poverty Bay.