RUGBY - Winds of change likely to blast through Northland side

Hurricane change is about to blow through the Northland rugby team with more than half the current squad rolling off contract and several unlikely to get offered renewals for next season.
But concerns about keeping the core of the squad together next season are being hampered with several key players entertaining lucrative offers from elsewhere - blockbusting No.8 Jake Paringatai and star midfield back Dan Bowden included.
Paringatai is rumoured to be courting a big money offer from Japan while Bowden, who is likely to pick up a Super 14 contract this year, has Wellington and Otago both keen to recruit him.
Northland Rugby Union chief executive Rob Malone and Northland coaches Mark Anscombe and Bruce Robertson met last week to draw up a list of the current squad members they want retained and positions they are hoping to recruit for.
But Northland's disappointing 20-16 loss to Waikato in Hamilton on Saturday has suddenly fast tracked the process as the result knocked the team out of contention for a play-off berth.
Malone said negotiations with Paringatai were in progress but several other players coming off contract were yet to be re-signed as well.
"The winds of change might be about to blow," Malone said.
"There are several players coming off contract, but we have three players we have identified as priorities for us, Jake Paringatai, Dan Bowden and Tony Koonwaiyou," he said.
Anscombe was loathe to reveal too much, but has indicated a desire to recruit players, with particular concern at halfback, hooker and in the midfield backline department.
"To be frank, there are some players we won't be offering new contracts to, some of these current players have shown they are unable to perform at this level and we simply need to find some who are," he said.
Paringatai said that if he opted to stay in New Zealand that he would only consider playing for Northland.
"I feel like I am a Northlander at heart now, so I wouldn't play or transfer to any other province to play rugby.
"But I need to think about my family now and a contract overseas is looking pretty attractive," Paringatai said.
Bowden wants a Super 14 contract and may decide playing for a franchise base team will enhance his chances.
Lock Brad Taylor is set to sign for a season in Italy while hooker Tim Dow is also rumoured to be looking overseas.
That would give Northland some leeway to attract some new players in a tight player transfer market.
* Placid effort results in another close loss
Life as a professional rugby player certainly isn't all bad.
Catered meals, a masseuse on call, free gear and hotel accommodation provided on demand are all clauses anyone would like added to their employment contract. Five-hour bus trips to Hamilton probably wouldn't be though.
Hamilton might be trying hard to shake the title as the sharemilking-boy racer's capital of the world, but until the road from Auckland to the provincial epicentre is paved with $50 notes, the trip is never going to make the destination any more enticing.
Especially when 80 minutes of punishment at the hands of 15 marauding rugby Mooloo men awaits your arrival, not a pile of $100 notes for your trouble.
That might be the reason why no Northland rugby team has ever beaten Waikato in a championship match in Hamilton, or at least at the city's plush new stadium at Rugby Park. By the time you get there all you want to do is go home.
At least that was the best explanation for the rather placid effort from the Northland rugby team in Hamilton on Saturday.
In what has become a habit this season, Northland just lost. They haven't lost any game by more than eight points all year. But on Saturday that was on the scoreboard. On the pitch it was a different matter altogether.
Punished at scrum time and bullied at the breakdown, it was only the fact that this Waikato unit is probably one of the most average teams the proud province has produced in about two decades that the score wasn't bigger. Much bigger.
Waikato had four tries disallowed for knock-ons in goal, at least three more called back for forward passes and muffed a couple more just for the fun of it. Even without the conversions, that's about 50 points that went begging.
Northland, on the other hand, hardly fired a shot.
In a game that Northland had to win to make a quarter final, not just win but win handsomely, that was a mysterious malaise to witness.
There are many ways to score four tries and win a game, but kicking your opponent the ball every two minutes must surely be one of the more difficult methods. Especially when the first three backline attacks carved huge holes in the opposition.
But the performance may well have been an indication of the reality that is now facing the Northland rugby team.
As a team they might be capable of finishing close, but as individuals there are many who simply don't stack up. The disturbing part though is that some of those individuals who do might not be here next season.
There are a number of players, more than half of them, who came off contract at the final whistle on Saturday, among them No.8 Jake Paringatai, midfield back Dan Bowden, lock Brad Taylor and prop Tony Coughlan.
Taylor has already signed to play in Italy, Bowden is entertaining offers from Otago and Wellington while Coughlan is eyeing retirement. Paringatai though looms as the most significant loss as he ponders a huge money offer from Japan.
There might be many attractions to boast about in Northland, but when a six figure paycheck is waving in the breeze ... all the diving, fishing and beach accommodation you can handle soon pales in comparison.
But even those distractions didn't quite explain Saturday's meek performance, a display laced with some all-too-familiar errors.
While Waikato were pinned in their own territory in the first half Northland were unable, maybe even incapable, of scoring points despite breaking through some washy defence to set up try scoring chances.
That saw Waikato take a mind numbing 8-3 halftime lead with a try to winger Roy Kinikinilau.
But it was shortly after Northland stalwart David Holwell kicked Northland into a 9-8 lead that the Northland effort was really derailed.
An opportunist try to Liam Messam was followed quickly by two eyecatching Waikato bursts that sucked the Northland side of confidence. A try to Steven Bates sealed the deal for Waikato.
Northland hit back with a well earned try to John Cocker, but the irony in the fact that Cocker scored after the final hooter had sounded wasn't lost. Performing when it really matters is something some of these Northland players have struggled with all year.