Northland boss still keen to run with 14-team series

Northland rugby chairman Andrew Golightly hasn't given up on a 14-team Air New Zealand Cup in the future despite the NZRU's stated preference for a 10-team competition.
Golightly said that attending a meeting of the provincial unions at NZRU headquarters on Saturday to discuss the future of the competition had left him with more questions than answers. "The board has said their preference is for  10 teams - provided we can create a meaningful competition for the four teams excluded - but, at this stage, there is no clear proposal for achieving that."
He said several ideas, including introducing B-teams from the bigger unions,  Heartland competitors or even Australian teams had been proposed but none had found much support or even interest at this stage.
Instead, Golightly has proposed a shorter competition.
"I've presented a model that I believe could accommodate all 14 provinces within the 11-team framework," he said.
The idea is still in its infancy but fits into the playing window of 11 weeks - including nine first-round matches, semifinals and final.
 "My idea is based on the idea that playing everyone in a round-robin competition may not be realistic," he said.
Golightly suggests a first round of nine weeks of matches, organised by seedings or by a draw. Then would come a round of semifinals and finals - following a competition structure similar to that used in rugby sevens.
The top four teams after the preliminary round would play off for a place in the final - much the way it was done  now - but there would also be plate and bowl finals, between the next two tiers of four team groups, as well as a wooden-spoon playoff between the 13th and 14th-placed teams.
"It's in the early stages of planning and it's not ideal ... but it's definitely better than anything I've heard at this stage," Golightly said.
He will circulate his idea in the coming weeks and hopes it will gain support - or at least stimulate debate.
Should the NZRU plan to cull teams go ahead, then selection of which of the provinces to drop is likely to be another sticking point, with the general consensus at Saturday's meeting that it should be based on the team's performance in the competition - something that the NZRU is unlikely to agree with.
"It's really just reconfirmed our early idea that we've really got to be aiming to finish in the top 10 teams this year," Golightly said.
The push to introduce the 10-team competition as soon as next year was not supported by Northland.
"There is a push by a lot of unions for 2010, just because some unions are finding it really tight in these financially difficult times and are saying 'let's make the change now'," he said.
"Our position is clearly opposed to that. We want to wait until 2011 because next year we will have the new events centre to use and we're expecting that to make things a lot better for us."
The date of the next meeting to discuss the future of the country's premier rugby competition has yet to be confirmed.