RUGBY - 'Impressive money' lures rugby star off to Japan

A six-figure contract offer has lured Northland rugby star Jake Paringatai to Japan, leaving the representative rugby team in dire straits as they try to piece together a competitive squad to tackle the Air New Zealand Cup starting in July.
While yet to be formally announced, Paringatai has signed with Japanese Top League club IBM Big Blue on a year-long contract and will fly out on Saturday.
Paringatai only arrived back from a short-term contract with Munster in Ireland three weeks ago. At the time it was hoped Paringatai would stay on and play another season with Northland with the carrot of reaching his 50-game milestone for the province and the chance of winning back a post in the NZ Maori team this season.
But contract talks with NRU chairman Wayne Peters had not been productive. Paringatai not only found the contract with the Japanese club more lucrative, but also easier to deal with.
Speaking on Tuesday, before details of the contract were leaked to The Northern Advocate, Paringatai said he had been frustrated by negotiations with the NRU. He opted out yesterday and signed with the Japanese club.
"The negotiations have not been going all that well to be honest. They (the negotiations) are not really in too good a shape, I mean, Northland rugby definitely don't have the money that they used to, that's for sure," he said.
"I wasn't going in there expecting massive amounts of money, but then the dollar signs jump up from Japan.
"The money is pretty good. It is hard to look away from, it is more money than you could dream of making here unless you won Lotto. I was pretty keen to stick around but, you know, the money man. The money is impressive," Paringatai said.
Peters was in Australia and could not be contacted for comment. As acting chief executive Peters is conducting all player negotiations himself. But news of Paringatai's departure had left an uneasy feeling with Northland coach Mark Anscombe.
The battle to assemble a competitive squad is taking a toll, and the current player negotiation process is not helping his cause.
"While we know - in the case with Jake - we can't compete with Japan, if we were a bit more reactive I think we could have kept him for this year. I think if we had done things quicker a while ago I think we would have kept him. He is the only one who can really answer that, but it's just a feeling I have."
"At the moment as we speak we have 14 contracted players in the Northland squad ... 14. Some of the local guys are going to have to prove themselves right up to the end to see if they are the best option we have got. That's about as far as we have got in terms of formulating a squad."
Paringatai joins a mass exodus of players, an evacuation that started when utility back Dan Bowden signed with the Dunedin-based Otago union late last year and has continued all summer.
At last count 10 of last year's representative squad have gone, a talent drain that has left the representative squad seriously short. There are no players contracted beyond the end of the 2008 season. The rest of the squad will be selected from the Northland club championship or secured on loan from Blues Super 14 franchise partners Auckland and North Harbour.